Iran\u2019s President has closed the door on meeting Donald Trump despite last-minute European efforts to ease tensions as the United States again ramped up punishing sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
French President Emmanuel Macron had shuttled between his US and Iranian counterparts over two days at the United Nations, trying to arrange a historic encounter that he hoped could reduce the risk of all-out war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, addressing the UN General Assembly, said on Wednesday he would refuse talks so long as the United States maintains its economic pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would like to announce that our response to any negotiation under sanctions is negative,\u201d Rouhani said.He dismissed the idea of a photo-op with Trump, who is fond of drama and held three made-for-television meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He doubted the sincerity of the Trump administration to negotiate, pointing to officials\u2019 boasts of applying \u201cthe harshest sanctions in history\u201d against Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow can someone believe them when the silent killing of a great nation, and pressure on the lives of 83 million Iranians, especially women and children, are welcomed by American government officials?\u201d \u201cThe Iranian nation will never, ever forget and forgive these crimes and these criminals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump had already ruled out easing economic pressure and, hours before Rouhani\u2019s speech, his administration said it was stepping up sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a proclamation posted on the White House website Wednesday, Trump authorised the restriction and suspension of entry of senior Iranian government officials and their immediate family into the United States, calling Tehran \u201ca state sponsor of terrorism.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGiven that this behaviour threatens peace and stability in the Middle East and beyond, I have determined that it is in the interest of the United States to take action,\u201d the proclamation said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Trump\u2019s last scheduled day at the annual UN summit of world leaders, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would punish Chinese companies and their chief executives for buying Iranian oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re telling China, and all nations know that we will sanction every violation of sanctionable activity,\u201d Pompeo told a pressure group opposed to Iran\u2019s clerical regime on the sidelines of the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is one of the largest sanctions actions the United States has taken against entities and individuals identified as transporting Iranian oil since our sanctions were re-imposed in November 2018,\u201d Pompeo said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis action is aimed to deny the Iranian regime critical income to engage in foreign conflicts, advance its ballistic missile development, and fund terror around the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran\u2019s President has closed the door on meeting Donald Trump despite last-minute European efforts to ease tensions as the United States again ramped up punishing sanctions. French President Emmanuel Macron had shuttled between his US and Iranian counterparts over two days at the United Nations, trying to arrange a historic encounter that he hoped could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71225,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71223\/revisions\/71225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}