Biden could also match British and European Union sanctions against Russians over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, said one person familiar with the matter. “Sanctions are not a silver bullet,” said Hagar Hajjar Chemali, who served as a sanctions officer under Obama. Iran, despite Trump’s restoration of US sanctions, refuses to renegotiate the nuclear deal he abandoned. Adewale Adeyemo, the incoming number two official at Treasury, vowed this month to be “laser-focused” on national security, including “using our sanctions regime to hold bad actors accountable.” He will lead Biden’s sanctions evaluation, multiple sources said. “No, no, no, no,” Elliott Abrams, Trump’s envoy on Iran and Venezuela, told Reuters when asked whether the purpose of stepped-up Iran sanctions was to box Biden in.

Source: bd News24 December 16, 2020 10:52 UTC