U.S. to hit Iran with more sanctions

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday imposing new economic sanctions on Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khameini and his associates as Iranian officials warned they were willing to shoot down another U.S. drone. “We confidently say that the crushing response can always be repeated, and the enemy knows it,” Iranian Rear Adm. Hossein Khanzadi told a group of defense officials Monday, according to the government-aligned Tasnim news agency.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard shot down a U.S. military drone Thursday over the Strait of Hormuz, triggering a U.S. airstrike that President Donald Trump canceled before the planes took off. The United States also launched a cyberattack Thursday on the Revolutionary Guard, an Iranian official confirmed.

Trump said Friday he does not want war with Iran but that the nation couldn’t have nuclear weapons. He noted that such a conflict would result in “obliteration like you’ve never seen before.” Iranian officials have said they do not want to negotiate with the United States unless the Trump administration lifts sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the new sanctions are a way to prevent Iran from gaining “the resources to foment terror, to build out their nuclear weapons system, to build out their missile program.” Pompeo flew to Saudi Arabia on Monday to discuss the threat from Iran. During the weeklong trip, he will also meet with leaders from the United Arab Emirates.