An Iranian general has responded to President Trump’s “Game of Thrones”-inspired meme poster warning of sanctions -- deploying a "Thrones" meme of his own.
The Trump administration announced Friday that it would restore the final round of sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the controversial 2015 Iran nuclear deal, including on crude oil exports. After a traditional White House rollout, Trump tweeted the following meme from the Westeros Wing, bearing the ominous text "Sanctions are coming."
It wasn’t clear who created the movie-style poster image, but HBO objected to what they described as ”trademark misuse." However, that didn’t stop Gen. Qasem Soleimani, chief of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, from firing back with a meme of his own.
“I will stand against you,” Soleimany’s Instagram post read in the "Game of Thrones" font.
Trump has long been a critic of the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, and withdrew the U.S. from it earlier this year over European objections. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin formally announced the sanctions on Iran’s shipping, financial and energy sectors on Friday.
The sanctions will target Iran’s crude oil exports and will penalize countries that don’t stop importing oil and foreign companies that do business with certain Iranian entities. Pompeo said that the sanctions are intended to fundamentally change the Iranian regime's behavior.
Pompeo also tweeted about the sanctions on Saturday.
"On November 5, we will place tough sanctions on #Iran’s ruling regime. Our aim is to compel Iran to abandon its destructive activities," the tweet said. "The sanctions will target the regime—not the people, who have suffered the pain of their government’s mismanagement, theft, and brutality."
'SANCTIONS ARE COMING': TRUMP INVOKES 'GAME OF THRONES' TO ANNOUNCE IRAN CRACKDOWN
The administration also announced that there would be eight significant reduction exemptions (SREs) for countries that haven’t completely eliminated oil imports from Iran. The waivers will last for a six-month period and will be re-evaluated after that time is up.
The sanctions, which are to take effect on Monday, are the second such round after economic sanctions were re-introduced in August. Trump has promised that his administration is considering additional sanctions “to counter the entire range of Iran’s malign conduct.”
Fox News’ Judson Berger and The Associated Press contributed to this report.