President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Tuesday committing the US to a policy of “maximum pressure” against Iran, aimed at pushing its oil exports to “zero”, while also issuing a dire warning.
Mr Trump said he had left instructions ordering a strike to obliterate Iran if he is ever assassinated by Tehran, yet he also signalled a willingness to reset the relationship between the two countries. “If they do it, they get obliterated. There won't be anything left,” he told reporters at the White House.
He ordered the 2020 killing of Qassem Suleimani, who led the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. The Justice Department announced in November that an Iranian plot to kill Mr Trump before the presidential election had been thwarted.
Mr Trump's memo orders the US Treasury Secretary to impose “maximum economic pressure” on Iran, including sanctions and enforcement on those breaching existing penalties.
It also directs the Treasury and State Department to implement a campaign aimed at “driving Iran's oil exports to zero". US oil prices pared losses on Tuesday on the news that Mr Trump planned to sign the memo, which offset some weakness from the tariff drama between Washington and Beijing.
“It's very tough on Iran,” Mr Trump said of the memo.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Mr Trump's "maximum pressure" policy had failed in the past, and he believed it would again, state news agency IRNA reported.
"If the main concern is that Iran should not pursue nuclear weapons, this is achievable and not a complicated issue. Iran’s position is clear: it is a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the supreme leader’s fatwa has already clarified our stance," Mr Araghchi said.
The US President's move indicates a return to a policy he used in his first term, when he withdrew America from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in 2018.
Yet Mr Trump indicated that he was open to a different relationship with Tehran and said he was “torn” about signing the memorandum.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Mr Trump said. “We don't want to be tough on Iran. We don't want to be tough on anybody, but they just can't have a nuclear weapon.”
He said he had hoped not sign the memorandum.
“Hopefully we're not going to have to use it very much,” Mr Trump said. “We will see whether or not we can arrange or work out a deal with Iran and everybody can live together, and maybe that's possible and maybe it's not possible.”
Mr Trump's hesitation appears to be a slight deviation from his more hardline approach towards Tehran during his first term.
"Mr Trump is signalling a return to maximum pressure in name, if not yet in fact, as he has not yet announced any new sanctions," said Gregory Brew, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group, whose work focuses on Iran.
"His tone while signing the order sounded almost dejected, as though he was signing it under duress, but he's made it clear in the past that he hopes to resume sanctions pressure on Iran, particularly its oil exports, after what he sees as a period of lax enforcement under [former president Joe] Biden."
He recently revoked government security protection for former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and his top aide, Brian Hook, as well as his former national security adviser John Bolton, who have all faced threats from Iran after they took hardline stances against it during Mr Trump’s first administration.