Category World News

United States President Donald Trump has said that countries that engage in trade with Iran will face a 25 percent tariff on any business done with the US.

Trump announced the decision in a social media post on Monday, stating that it was “final and conclusive”, but offering few additional details.

“Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America,” Trump said in a post on his website, Truth Social.

It is not clear which countries might be affected, but major economies such as Russia, China, Brazil and Turkiye all trade with Iran, which has been roiled by widespread antigovernment protests and riots over the past week.

Iraq and the United Arab Emirates are also important trading partners, according to the database Trading Economics.

In recent weeks, Trump has ratcheted up pressure on Tehran and threatened further military strikes on the country, should it fail to abide by US demands to wind down its nuclear and military programmes.

“Now, I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down,” Trump told reporters in December. “We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But, hopefully, that’s not happening.”

In June, the US bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities as part of a 12-day war initiated by Israel. US strikes on Iran likely constitute a violation of international law, according to legal experts.

“Air strikes would be one of the many, many options that are on the table,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, adding that Trump remains interested in diplomacy, if possible.

Trump has also criticised Iran’s harsh crackdown on antigovernment protesters and warned that any violence could also lead to a US strike.

In a January 2 post on Truth Social, the US president indicated he would consider taking military action should protesters be killed.

“If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” he wrote.

The threat came one day before the US launched a military attack in Venezuela, which resulted in the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has continued to threaten Iran with military attacks, saying that air strikes are one of “many options” being explored as widespread protests put the Iranian government under growing pressure.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that diplomacy is “always the first option” but that military attacks are “on the table”.

“One thing President Trump is very good at is always keeping all of his options on the table. And air strikes would be one of the many, many options that are on the table for the commander in chief,” Leavitt told reporters.

Large-scale protests and riots have roiled Iran, with security forces responding with a lethal crackdown over the last several days that is estimated to have killed hundreds of people. Iranian authorities have said that scores of security personnel have also been killed in the riots.

Opposition activists say the death toll is higher and includes hundreds of protesters. Al Jazeera cannot independently verify these figures. Details have been difficult to verify amid an internet blackout.

Trump, who bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in June and has previously threatened Tehran with further strikes if it does not come into greater alignment with US demands, had used the government’s harsh crackdown on protesters as a pretext for further military attacks against the longtime US foe.

A US strike on Iran would likely violate international law, and Trump has frequently threatened countries that defy his will with possible military strikes.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that some members of the Trump administration such as Vice President JD Vance are urging Trump to consider renewed diplomatic efforts with Tehran or other less severe alternatives to US strikes, citing unnamed US officials. The US president said on Sunday that Iran had “called” and wanted to “negotiate”.

“What you’re hearing publicly from the Iranian regime is quite different from the messages the administration is receiving privately,” Leavitt said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned the United States that his country is ready for war if Washington wants to “test” it, after US President Donald Trump threatened to take military action in response to Iran’s crackdown on antigovernment protests.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Arabic on Monday, Araghchi said channels of communication with the US were open amid the ongoing unrest but stressed that his country was “prepared for all options”, claiming that Iran now has “large and extensive military preparedness” compared to last year’s 12-day war.

His comments follow Trump’s remarks on Sunday, amid nationwide protests in Iran sparked by economic woes that have intensified into broader calls for systemic change. The US president had said he was considering “strong options” for Iran over its leadership’s crackdown on protests, including potential military action.

Trump, who recently ordered the abduction of leftist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a US Special Forces intervention, said that a meeting was being set up with Tehran to negotiate on its nuclear programme, “but we may have to act because of what is happening before the meeting”.

“If Washington wants to test the military option it has tested before, we are ready for it,” said Araghchi, adding that he hoped the US would choose “the wise option” of dialogue, while warning of “those trying to drag Washington into war in order to serve Israel’s interests”.

In the interview, Araghchi alluded to the growing death toll, repeating earlier assertions that “terrorist elements” had “infiltrated the crowds of protesters and targeted security forces and demonstrators”. Iran has blamed the US and Israel for provoking unrest in the country over the past two weeks.

More than 100 security personnel have been killed in recent days, state media has reported, while opposition activists say the death toll is higher and includes hundreds of protesters. Al Jazeera has been unable to independently verify the figures.

The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday. The foreign minister had said on Monday that the service would be resumed in coordination with security services. Monitor NetBlocks said at 16:29 GMT on Monday that Iran had been offline for 96 hours.

Araghchi told Al Jazeera Arabic that his communications with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had “continued before and after the protests and are still ongoing”. He said that ideas that had been discussed with Washington were being studied in Tehran.

However, he added, “Washington’s proposed ideas and threats against our country are incompatible.”

“We are ready to sit at the nuclear negotiating table, provided that it is without threats or dictates,” said Araghchi, questioning whether Washington was “ready for fair and just negotiations”.

“When it is ready, we will seriously consider the matter,” he said.

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that the US military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington intervened in the current unrest, warning Washington of a “miscalculation”.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused Iran of sending “quite different” messages to the US in private, compared to its public statements, in an interview with the Fox News programme America Reports on Monday.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the White House was weighing Iran’s offer to engage in further military talks, even as Trump mulled strikes on the country.

United States Senator Lisa Murkowski threw her support behind fellow Republican Thom Tillis’s plan to block President Donald Trump’s Fed nominees after the Justice Department over the weekend threatened to indict Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

“The stakes are too high to look the other way: if the Federal Reserve loses its independence, the stability of our markets and the broader economy will suffer,” Murkowski wrote on X on Monday.

Murkowski is one of a small handful of Trump’s fellow Republicans who have shown themselves willing to vote against his wishes at times in the US Senate, where his party holds a 53-47 majority.

Since returning to office last year, Trump has been increasingly publicly pressuring the Fed to cut interest rates, breaking with longstanding practice meant to insulate the central bank from political pressure and allowing it to focus on economic data.

Alaska lawmaker Murkowski said she had spoken earlier on Monday with Powell, who on Sunday said the US central bank had received subpoenas last week that he called “pretexts” aimed at the Fed’s basing interest rates on policy and not on Trump’s preferences.

Murkowski called the Justice Department threat “nothing more than an attempt at coercion”, adding that Congress should investigate the department if it believes probing the Fed was warranted over renovation cost overruns, which she called “not unusual”.

Hassett weighs in

Powell’s term is up in May, and White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett has largely been seen as a potential pick to succeed him.

Hassett questioned Powell’s congressional testimony about the Fed’s new building construction, which is at the centre of the Justice Department’s probe.

“Right now, we’ve got a building that’s got like, dramatic cost overruns and plans for the buildings that look inconsistent with the testimony, but again, I’m not a Justice Department person. I hope everything turns out OK for Jay,” Hassett told the CNBC news programme Squawk Box.

Later, Hassett said he would support the investigation if he were in charge of the Fed, telling reporters that it “seems like the Justice Department has decided that they want to see what’s going on over there with this building that’s massively more expensive than any building in the history of Washington”.

Trump, who has long pushed for more aggressive interest rate cuts, said in a post on his Truth Social platform in December, “The United States should be rewarded for SUCCESS, not brought down by it. Anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman!”

Former officials condemn probe

The past three heads of the US Federal Reserve on Monday joined with other former federal government economic policy leaders in condemning the Trump administration’s criminal probe of the Fed chair, likening it to the interference with central bank independence more often seen in emerging market countries with “weak institutions”.

“The reported criminal inquiry into Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell is an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine that independence,” a statement signed by former Fed chairs Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan said.

“This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly. It has no place in the United States whose greatest strength is the rule of law, which is at the foundation of our economic success.”