Maximum pressure campaign
Maximum pressure campaign refers to the intensified sanctions against Iran by the Trump administration after the United States exited the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018. The campaign was aimed at pressuring Iran to renegotiate the JCPOA, adding more restrictions on Iran's nuclear program and expanding the scope of the agreement to cover Iran's ballistic missiles as well as other regional activities. This strategy was faced by Iran's counter pressure policy to thwart the U.S. maximum pressure campaign. According to Human Rights Watch, the current economic sanctions "are causing unnecessary suffering to Iranian citizens afflicted with a range of diseases and medical conditions," despite exemptions for the humanitarian goods. Sanctions In May 2018, then U.S. president Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran and imposed several new non-nuclear sanctions against Iran, some of which were condemned by Iran as a violation of the deal. In November 2018, the U.S. officially reimposed all sanctions against Iran that had been lifted before the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA. Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former U.S. Treasury Department official told NPR that the program include sanctioning "some Iranian financial institutions not previously designated and that were previously used to facilitate food,