Sanctions News

The Daily Signal provides comprehensive sanctions news with reporting and conservative analysis on economic warfare strategies, Russian sanctions effectiveness, Iranian regime pressure, Chinese trade restrictions, and the debate over sanctions as foreign policy tools versus military intervention.
Filter articles by
    • News

    Trump Sanctions Russian Oil Giant in Push for Freedom in Venezuela

    The Trump administration announced Tuesday it has imposed sanctions on a Russian state-controlled oil company that does business with the Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro, the socialist strongman clinging to power as an illegitimate president in the South American nation more than a year after the country’s legislature voted to remove him from office.  The…
    Fred Lucas
    Read More
    • News

    Trump Opts for More Sanctions, Not Military Action, After Iran’s Attack

    Less than 24 hours after Iran fired 15 missiles at U.S. military facilities in Iraq, President Donald Trump signaled a strong desire to deescalate by announcing new sanctions instead of  a military response.  Trump also urged allies to put more pressure on Iran’s Islamist dictatorship.  “As long as I am president of the United States,…
    Fred Lucas
    Read More
    • News

    Trump Calls New Sanctions on Iran the Harshest Ever Placed on a Country

    President Donald Trump said Friday that new sanctions on Iran’s national bank are the strongest ever placed on a country, but reiterated that he hopes to avoid military action against the Islamist regime.  “I think sanctions work. The military would work. That’s a very severe form of winning,” Trump said during a joint White House…
    Fred Lucas
    Read More
    • News

    Trump Hints at New Iran Sanctions, Prefers to Avoid ‘Ultimate Option’ of War

    President Donald Trump says he will announce new actions by Friday regarding Iran’s suspected role in attacking oil fields in Saudi Arabia.  “We’ll be adding some very significant sanctions onto Iran,” Trump told reporters Wednesday in Los Angeles. “We’ll be announcing it over the next 48 hours.” Trump said he has “many options” and that…
    Fred Lucas
    Read More
    • News

    US Slaps New Sanctions on Russia for 2018 Nerve Agent Attack

    ABOARD A U.S. AIR FORCE AIRCRAFT—The U.S. has announced a new round of sanctions on Russia for its use of a chemical weapon in 2018 during an attempted assassination of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil. In the March 2018 attack in the town of Salisbury in the United Kingdom,…
    Nolan Peterson
    Read More
    • News

    Trump Adds Sanctions on Russia After Chemical Weapons Used on Ex-Spy

    President Donald Trump put more sanctions on Russia via executive order Thursday as required by law in response to Russia’s use of chemical weapons in a 2018 attack on an ex-spy in the U.S., two U.S. officials said. The attack was made on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his adult daughter Yulia Skripal, who…
    Evie Fordham
    Read More
    • News

    Iran Says White House Is ‘Mentally Retarded’ After Learning of New Sanctions

    President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said that the White House is “mentally retarded” Tuesday after new sanctions were imposed on the country. “Hard-hitting sanctions” were placed on Iran by President Donald Trump Monday as tensions between the two countries increased. The sanctions were specifically placed on the supreme leader of Iran and the Office of…
    Shelby Talcott
    Read More
    • News

    Trump Ratchets Up Sanctions on Iran’s Top Ayatollah, His Inner Circle

    After pulling back from the brink of a military strike last week, the Trump administration is targeting the assets of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with his closest associates, through a new round of sanctions against the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism.              Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone last week over…
    Fred Lucas
    Read More
    • News

    US Sanctions Send Iranians to Northern Iraq Looking for Work and War

    SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq—When Iran’s economy began to collapse last year under U.S. sanctions, Iranian computer programmer Mohsen Heidari decided to look for work in Iraqi Kurdistan. “It’s impossible to support my family, anymore, living in Iran,” said Heidari, who is from the Iranian city of Kermanshah. “Coming here was my last option,” Heidari said of the…
    Nolan Peterson
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Trump’s Cuba Sanctions Are a Solid Step in Cracking Down on Maduro Regime’s Enablers

    The Trump administration on Monday took the historic step of implementing Cuba sanctions. Specifically, the administration is temporarily permitting U.S. citizens whose property was stolen by the Castro regime to pursue legal action. From March 19 to April 17, Americans will be able to sue 205 Cuban companies that are owned and/or operated by the…
    Ana Quintana
    Read More
    • News

    Florida Governor Sanctions Airbnb for West Bank Policy

    Airbnb, which lists more 45,000 Florida properties on its vacation rentals website, has lobbied hard to remove its “home-sharing” offerings from hotel/motel regulations and unshackle the state’s $31 billion short-term rental industry from local regulations. Several bills, including last year’s Vacation Rental Act, gained momentum during the last two legislative sessions before falling short. If…
    John Haughey
    Read More
    • Opinion

    EU Risks Dangerous Blowback by Undermining Iran Sanctions

    Since the election of President Donald Trump, the European Union and the United States have increasingly disagreed on Iran policy. The divergence widened in May with Trump’s announcement that the United States was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement. Washington has since reimposed nuclear sanctions on Iran in two rounds in August and November. Meanwhile, the EU…
    James Phillips
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Treasury Can’t Go Wobbly When Sanctions Against Russians Are Starting to Hurt

    Anybody in the inner circle of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin who might have cheered President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 must now be sorely disappointed. When it comes to dealing with Russia, Trump has been the toughest president since Ronald Reagan. He has sent advanced weapons to the Ukrainians and Georgians, increased U.S. defense spending in…
    Luke Coffey
    Read More
    • News

    Trump Restores Some Sanctions on Iran Lifted in Obama Nuclear Deal

    The first round of U.S. sanctions on Iran go into effect Tuesday, with another, more stinging round set to hit in November—reimposing restrictions that were lifted under the Obama administration-led nuclear deal with the Islamist regime. President Donald Trump signed an executive order reimposing the sanctions Monday at his home in Bedminster, New Jersey, where…
    Fred Lucas
    Read More
    • News

    Pompeo Warns Iran to Face ‘Strongest Sanctions in History’

    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave Iran’s government an ultimatum and its people an assurance Monday in laying out the Trump administration’s agenda after pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal with the Islamist regime. “The Iranian wave of destruction in just the last few years is proof that Iran’s nuclear aspirations cannot be separated…
    Fred Lucas
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Cambodia Is Losing Its Democracy. It’s Time for Tougher Sanctions.

    The ruling Cambodian People’s Party swept all 58 seats up for grabs in recent Senate elections. The electoral sweep was unsurprising, given that democracy in the country has been on a downward spiral since the July 2013 elections, and in even more precipitous decline since the arrest of the main opposition leader, Kem Sokha, last…
    So Yeon Lee
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Trump’s New North Korea Sanctions Are Good, but Not Tough Enough

    President Donald Trump announced on Friday the “largest package of sanctions yet” on North Korea, targeting an extensive tranche of regime entities who had been thus far untouched by U.S. sanctions. This action is welcome and is another significant step forward in the international effort to increase pressure on North Korea for its repeated violations…
    Bruce Klingner
    Read More
    • News

    Trump Reluctantly Signs Russia Sanctions Bill

    President Donald Trump signed a sweeping sanctions bill Wednesday that is intended to punish Russia for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. In doing so, Trump criticized the legislation as “seriously flawed—particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate.” “Congress could not even negotiate a health care bill after seven years of talking….
    Jack Crowe
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Trump Administration Says Iran Is Complying With Nuclear Deal, Adds New Sanctions

    For the second time, the Trump administration on Monday certified that Iran remains in compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement. Administration officials stressed, however, that they remain dissatisfied with the flawed nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration and are concerned with Iran’s malign policies, which violate the spirit of the agreement. The Trump administration,…
    James Phillips
    Read More
    • News

    Paris and Washington Send a Message to Moscow: No Sanctions Relief Until Russian Troops Leave Ukraine

    KYIV, Ukraine—The Kremlin’s gambit to secure sanctions relief by redrawing the political landscapes in Europe and the United States has, so far, been a failure. In 2014, the U.S. and the European Union levied punitive economic sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and subsequent proxy war in eastern Ukraine. New presidential…
    Paul Runko
    Read More