Maximum pressure: President Trump getting tough on Iran

JERUSALEM – U.S. President Donald Trump is set to return to the policy of maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran as he attempts to dissuade the mullahs in Tehran from pursuing nuclear weapons, as the regime itself puts out conflicting – and often deliberately misleading – information about whether it is even actively attempting to create the bomb.

Reports have circulated the president will sign an executive order Tuesday, which is supposedly aimed at denying the Iranian regime all paths to a nuclear weapon, as well as attempting to counter the Islamic Republic’s malign regional influence, exemplified but not limited to the so-called ring of fire made up of Iranian proxies surrounding Israel.

BREAKING

Trump is set to sign an executive order on Tuesday to reinstate ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran, according to US officials.

The show is about to begin… pic.twitter.com/LimzKRXQf8

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) February 4, 2025

One of the key aspects of the order is to direct U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to impose maximum economic pressure, including via sanctions and enforcement mechanisms on those violating existing measures.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to work with Bessent to modify or rescind existing sanction waivers in an attempt to drive Iranian oil exports to zero.

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, will work with the US Treasury to remove sanction waivers on the regime in Iran.

The aim of this is to “drive their oil exports to zero”, as part of Trump’s Maximum Pressure comeback.

This administration isn’t playing. pic.twitter.com/QHxXNMnXI2

— ♛ ︎ (@NiohBerg) February 4, 2025

Trump’s decision should not come as a surprise, not least because it was his favored strategy to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat during his first term, and prior to assuming office on Jan. 20, he strongly hinted he would pick up the cudgel once more. He’s kept many – if not all – his campaign promises, so it would have been phantasy to expect anything different.

The maximum pressure campaign had its critics, although the president has had four (long) years to witness former President Joe Biden’s catastrophic policies toward the Islamic Republic, and not incoherently conclude they were an unmitigated dumpster fire.

Biden and his minions took their foot off the ayatollah’s throat, and look at what he did with that largesse. While Iran’s economy is still showing signs of serious strain, it would have been even more beggared if the Biden hadn’t allowed the regime to open the oil spigots again.

With the extra billions of dollars its coffers received – whether through the unfreezing of assets as occurred in South Korea in 2023 or from the sale of oil. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, by the end of 2023, Iran accounted for 24% of oil reserves in the Middle East and 12% in the world, although it did not benefit from this as much as it might because some sanctions were still in place under Biden, although it is not clear how vigorously they were enforced.

One of the pillars of the Trump policy is to attempt to reduce Iran’s immediate influence around the Middle East; and one of the ways it utilized its spare cash was to continue funding Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. It also used those funds to continue developing ballistic missiles, as well as progressing its nuclear weapons program, despite the drip-drip of information, which has suggested the ayatollah has still to decide if they are kosher or not.

Despite this apparent haziness, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January said Iran was “pressing the gas pedal” on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade.

Additionally, Western intelligence agencies say Iran had an organized military nuclear program until 2003, and continued to develop its nuclear program beyond civilian necessity. Indeed, a New York Times report on Monday, highlighted American intelligence assessed Iranian scientists were exploring ways to create a short-cut to a nuclear weapon.