"Trump Planes Maximum Pressure On Iran's Bankruptcy Target Soon After Taking Office"

The U.S. daily Financial Times reported on the 16th local time that the second Donald Trump administration of the U.S. will launch a maximum pressure tactic aimed at Iran's bankruptcy as soon as it is launched in January next year.

The Financial Times said Trump's transition team is drafting executive orders to announce on his first day in office, which include tightening sanctions on Iran's oil exports and adding new sanctions.

A national security expert familiar with the transition said Trump "is firmly committed to reintroducing a maximum pressure strategy to bankrupt Iran as soon as possible."

During his first term in office, Trump unilaterally broke the Iran nuclear agreement reached during the previous Barack Obama administration and imposed strong economic sanctions on Iran.

In particular, the second administration is expected to act quickly to block Iran's oil exports.

Iran's crude oil exports have more than tripled this year to more than 1.5 million barrels a day after hitting a low of 400,000 barrels a day in 2020, mostly to China, according to a Financial Times report.

Bob McNally, an energy industry expert who served as an energy adviser in the George W. Bush administration, predicted that "if the second Trump administration really goes to the end, it could sharply reduce Iran's oil exports to hundreds of thousands of barrels a day."

"Iran's economy is already more vulnerable than it was during Trump's first term and is in a much worse corner," he said, adding that "it will be a very bad situation for Iran."