The US will increase the financial pressure on Iran with the "strongest sanctions in history", Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday (May 21st).
"We will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime. The leaders in Tehran will have no doubt about our seriousness," Pompeo said in his first major foreign policy address since moving to the State Department.
"The sting of sanctions will only grow more painful if the regime does not change course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen for itself and the people of Iran," he said.
"Iran will never again have carte blanche to dominate the Middle East," he said in outlining the new US strategy on handling the regime, including 12 conditions for any "new deal" with Tehran, AFP reported.
Pompeo said if Iran were to abide by the stricter terms, including ending its ballistic missile programme and its interventions in conflicts from Yemen to Syria, the US would lift its sanctions.
"Iran will be forced to make a choice: either fight to keep its economy off life support at home or keep squandering precious wealth on fights abroad,” he said. “It will not have the resources to do both."
