Trump announces tariffs on Iran trade partners as protest toll rises

US President Donald Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on any country doing business with Iran, ramping up pressure as a rights group estimated a crackdown on protests has killed at least 648 people.

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Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention, said in a social media post on Monday that the new levies would “immediately” hit the Islamic republic’s trading partners who also do business with the United States.

“This Order is final and conclusive,” he wrote, without specifying who they will affect.

Iran’s main trading partners are China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq, according to economic database Trading Economics.

Trump has been mulling his options on Iran, which has been roiled by more than two weeks of demonstrations that have defied a near-total internet blackout and lethal force.

Sparked by economic grievances, the nationwide protests have grown into one of the biggest challenges yet to the theocratic system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the shah.

Iranian authorities have blamed foreign interference for stoking the unrest and staged their own nationwide counter-rallies.

Rights groups warned that the severed communications were aimed at masking a rising death toll.

The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it had confirmed 648 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely much higher -- “according to some estimates more than 6,000”.