Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, tells Al Jazeera that “it is going to be very difficult” for US President Donald Trump to enforce “economic consequences” on countries that do business with Iran.

“Trump is trying to unilaterally assert the kind of coordinated sanctions that traditionally has taken multilateral coordination, and that means getting on board China, Russia, the P5 of the UN Security Council,” he said, referring to the permanent members of the UNSC.

He added that these sanctions could potentially “yield results” for the US if Trump manages to implement them.

Musgrave also said that “one advantage” for the US is that “Tehran’s trade is concentrated with a very small number of countries, and that includes, of course, the UAE which has suspended trade”.