On November 7. 2018, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions submitted his letter of resignation to President Donald Trump. In his letter, Sessions said that he resigned from his position “at [Donald Trump’s] request.” Due to this, many have speculated that Sessions was forced out of his position by the President. In a tweet later that day, President Trump said “We thanks Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well!” Matthew J. Whitaker, the former Chief of Staff to Sessions, will be serving as Acting Attorney General until a permanent replacement can be found.
On November 5, 2018, the United States reinstated economic sanctions on Iran. In order to fully appreciate the context of this, we should rewind to 2015. In 2015, Iran signed an agreement with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, and Russia called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA). The deal involved Iran shutting down 75% of its nuclear centrifuges and reduce its uranium stockpile at 98%. Under the JCPOA, Iran would also have to immediately shut down its nuclear weapons program, hence its more colloquial name, the “Iran Nuclear Deal”. Each of Iran’s nuclear facilities would be liable to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Association(IAEA). In exchange, over $100bn frozen Iranian assets would be set free, and all past economic sanctions imposed by the six nations involved in the deal was lifted.
However, the nuclear deal did not go without criticism. Then just a candidate in the Republican presidential primary, Donald Trump railed against the nuclear deal, and made repealing it one of his campaign promises. Trump has called the deal “defective at its core”, “one-sided”, and “was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program.” While Trump was the President-Elect, he was still promising to abolish the nuclear deal. Finally, on May 8, 2018, President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA. He announced that within 90 to 180 days, all lifted sanctions would be snapped back onto Iran.
Since May, the United States has been pressuring foreign countries not to buy oil from Iran, causing sales to tank by over one million barrels a day. On November 5, 2018, all United States oil sanctions were resumed. While some countries were granted special waivers to continue purchasing oil from Iran, the US expected most of its international allies to sever ties with the oil exporting nation. Iranian response has been expectedly defiant. Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Hossein Salami as saying “The enemy is trying to strike a blow against Iran through a soft war and an economic war but they will face a heavy defeat.”
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