Washington: US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that "major additional sanctions" will be imposed on Iran this Monday to stop the country from owning nuclear weapons.
While Trump made no mention of it, his latest decision comes at a time when the Iran-US relationship has further deteriorated after the Middle Eastern nation shot down a US military drone in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday.
"Iran cannot have nuclear weapons! Under the terrible Obama plan, they would have been on their way to nuclear in a short number of years, and existing verification is not acceptable. We are putting major additional sanctions on Iran on Monday. I look forward to the day that sanctions come off Iran, and they become a productive and prosperous nation again - The sooner the better!" he tweeted.
As part of a "maximum pressure" campaign, the United States has reinstated sanctions against Iran after exiting from the Iran nuclear deal last year.
The international community has called for restraint to be shown by the two nations following Thursday's incident. While Tehran claims that the "intruding American spy drone", RQ-4 Global Hawk, was downed after it violated Iranian airspace over the southern coastal province of Hormozgan, Washington has labelled it as an "unprovoked attack." The US claims that the drone was flying over international waters when it was attacked.
Trump has since claimed that he stopped retaliatory action against Iran, just 10 minutes before the strike on Thursday night.
Iran, on its part, has left no stone unturned to prove that the US drone was in its territorial waters to back its action.
"At 00:14 US drone took off from UAE in stealth mode & violated Iranian airspace. It was targeted at 04:05 at the coordinates (25deg59'43"N 57deg02'25"E) near Kouh-e Mobarak. We've retrieved sections of the US military drone in OUR territorial waters where it was shot down," the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted.
At 00:14 US drone took off from UAE in stealth mode & violated Iranian airspace. It was targeted at 04:05 at the coordinates (25°59'43"N 57°02'25"E) near Kouh-e Mobarak.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) June 20, 2019
We've retrieved sections of the US military drone in OUR territorial waters where it was shot down. pic.twitter.com/pJ34Tysmsg
He has since shared multiple maps showing the US unmanned aerial vehicle's flight path, the warnings sent out by Iran and the point of impact.
One last visual: Red dot is the impact point of the trespassing drone against the border of Iran; and the border of the United States. pic.twitter.com/nqVYI6EmkL
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) June 22, 2019
