Trump Targets Iran Banks, Seeking Crippling Blow Before US Vote

By Shaun Tandon

President Donald Trump's administration imposed sweeping sanctions Thursday on Iran's banking sector, taking a major new step to cripple Iran's already struggling economy weeks ahead of US elections.

The Treasury Department said it was designating 18 major Iranian banks, a move that could largely cut off the nation of 80 million people from the world's financial system just as it tries to cope with the Middle East's worst Covid-19 outbreak.

The United States defied concerns from European allies that the sanctions could cause needless suffering and insisted it was making exemptions for humanitarian trade.

The Trump administration did not list specific accusations against most of the banks, instead declaring broadly that the entire Iranian financial sector may be used to support the government's contested nuclear program and its "malign regional influence."

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the action would "stop illicit access to US dollars."

"Our sanctions programs will continue until Iran stops its support of terrorist activities and ends its nuclear programs," he said in a statement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the United States of trying to "blow up our remaining channels to pay for food and medicine" during the pandemic.

"Iranians WILL survive this latest of cruelties. But conspiring to starve a population is a crime against humanity," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

"Culprits & enablers—who block our money—WILL face justice."

Ahead of Election

The Treasury Department said it was exempting transactions in humanitarian goods such as food and medicine.

But European diplomats and some experts say US sanctions nonetheless have dire consequences, with few institutions willing to take the risks of legal action in the world's largest economy.

Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, described the move as "sadism masquerading as foreign policy," saying it would only hurt ordinary people and encourage smuggling, working against sanctions that are already in place.

The Treasury Department said the sanctions will be effective in 45 days, giving companies time to wind down transactions in Iran.

The timeframe will also give anyone working with Iran a chance to see the November 3 election, with polls showing Trump trailing Democrat Joe Biden, who supports a return to diplomacy.

Trump has pursued a policy of "maximum pressure" aimed at reining in Iran, the arch-rival of US allies Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The Trump administration has already moved to stop all Iranian oil exports and bolted from a deal negotiated under former president Barack Obama through which Iran curtailed its nuclear program.

Since Trump's imposition of unilateral sanctions, Iran has taken small but steady moves away from the nuclear accord.

Biden's running mate pick Kamala Harris, in a debate Wednesday with Vice President Mike Pence, said the pullout from the accord has led to Iran building "what might end up being a significant nuclear arsenal."

The US had been part of the Iran nuclear deal along with world allies but "because of Donald Trump's unilateral approach to foreign policy, coupled with his isolationism, he pulled us out and has made America less safe," she said.

The Trump administration has repeatedly butted heads on Iran with European allies, who most recently rejected a US legal argument that Washington can revive UN sanctions against Tehran.

Photo: Wikicommons

Iran Says US Faces 'Maximum Isolation' as World Powers Dismiss Sanctions

By Karim Abou Merhi

Iran said Sunday that the United States is facing "maximum isolation" after major powers dismissed a unilateral US declaration that UN sanctions on Tehran were back in force.

Washington said the sanctions had been re-activated under the "snapback" mechanism in a landmark 2015 nuclear treaty—despite Washington having withdrawn from the deal.

As other signatories cast doubt on the move having any legal effect, Washington threatened to "impose consequences" on states failing to comply.

But Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said a concerted campaign by Washington to pressure Tehran had backfired.

"We can say that America's 'maximum pressure' against Iran, in its political and legal aspect, has turned into America's maximum isolation," he said in a televised cabinet meeting.

The sanctions in question had been lifted when Iran, the UN Security Council's five permanent members (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US) and Germany signed the 2015 treaty on Iran's nuclear programme, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

But President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA in 2018, saying the deal—negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama—was insufficient. 

He also stepped up Washington's own sanctions as part of a "maximum pressure" campaign against the Islamic republic.

The US insists it is still a participant in the agreement—but only so it can activate the snapback option, which it announced on August 20.

Virtually every other UNSC member disputes Washington's ability to execute this legal pirouette, and the UN body has not taken the measure any further.

'No Legal Effect'

On Sunday, France, Germany and Britain issued a joint statement saying Washington's "purported notification" was "incapable of having any legal effect".

Russia also said Washington's "illegitimate initiative and actions" could not have "international legal consequences" for others.

China's mission to the UN tweeted that the US move was "devoid of any legal, political or practical effect", adding that it was "time to end the political drama by the US".

Rouhani thanked UNSC members who had "stood against America's illegal request" and said if remaining signatories let Iran access the deal's economic benefits, Iran would reinstate nuclear commitments it had dropped in response to the US withdrawal.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, announcing the move, said Saturday that the US "welcomes the return of virtually all previously terminated UN sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran".

He said US authorities were prepared to impose "consequences" against states who "fail to fulfil their obligations to implement these sanctions", with measures to be announced in the coming days.

With around six weeks to go until the US presidential election, Trump could unveil those measures in a speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

Iran's foreign minister accused Pompeo of "threaten(ing) to punish a world that refuses to live in his parallel universe".

"The world says NO Security Council sanctions were restored," Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.

Iran's foreign ministry said in a statement that Washington, by leaving the nuclear deal, had "explicitly denied itself any right" to use the "snapback" mechanism.

It also warned that if the US "acts on these threats, directly, or with the cooperation of a handful of its puppets, it will face a serious response and be responsible for all the dangerous consequences.”

'Nothing Worse'

The US had already suffered a resounding defeat at the Security Council in mid-August, when it tried to extend an embargo on conventional weapons deliveries to Tehran, which was due to expire in October.

Pompeo responded with an unusually vehement attack on Britain, France and Germany, accusing them of "siding with Iran's ayatollahs", before announcing the snapback.

In Washington's eyes, its move has now extended the embargo "indefinitely" and reactivated international sanctions on many activities related to Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Zarif accused Pompeo of not having read UN resolutions or the nuclear deal.

"He's now probably waiting for the movie to come out so he can begin to understand it," he told state television.

On the streets of Tehran, Iranians complained of harsh economic conditions they blamed on US sanctions.

"It's really difficult for the people right now. Whether sanctions are reimposed or not, we are living with utmost difficulty," said Leila Zanganeh, a martial arts instructor.

But Danial Namei, an architect, seemed to care little for returning UN sanctions and doubted things could get worse.

"We've been through difficult things and it is still ongoing. There's nothing worse than the worst, after all," he said.

Photo: IRNA

Pompeo Insists US to Enforce 'UN' Sanctions On Iran

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted Wednesday the United States will enforce new "UN" sanctions on Iran starting next week, despite overwhelming consensus that Washington is out of bounds.

"The United States will do what it always does. It will do its share as part of its responsibilities to enable peace, this time in the Middle East," Pompeo told a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

"We'll do all the things we need to do to make sure that those sanctions are enforced," he said.

Pompeo last month headed to the United Nations to announce the "snapback" of sanctions under a 2015 Security Council resolution after failing to extend an embargo on conventional arms sales to Iran.

The resolution allows any participant in a nuclear accord with Iran negotiated under former president Barack Obama to reimpose sanctions, which would take effect one month afterward.

President Donald Trump pulled out of the accord, which he has repeatedly denounced, but Pompeo argues that the United States remains a "participant" as it was listed in the 2015 resolution.

The sanctions are authorized by a "valid UN Security Council resolution," Pompeo said.

Trump has already enforced sweeping unilateral US sanctions on Iran, inflicting a heavy toll in a bid to curb the clerical state's regional influence.

The United Nations has clearly said that it cannot proceed with the reimposition of UN sanctions, with 13 of the Security Council's 15 nations objecting to the US move.

European allies of the United States say that they support extending the arms embargo but want to preserve a diplomatic solution on the nuclear issue, which they see as more important.

Playing down differences, Raab said of the nuclear accord: "We have always welcomed US and indeed any other efforts to broaden it."

"The means by which we get there, there may be shades of difference but we have handled them... constructively," he said.

The issue has come to a head less than two months before Trump seeks another term against Democrat Joe Biden, a supporter of the accord that curbed Iran's nuclear program.

Photo: IRNA

US Sanctions Chinese, UAE Firms Skirting Iran Oil Embargo

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions against 11 Iranian, Chinese and United Arab Emirates companies accused of helping to bypass the American embargo on Iran's oil exports.

"Iran must stop exploiting its natural resources to fund terror and destruction across the region," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned in a tweet.

It was the latest in a series of sanctions that Washington has slapped on foreign companies doing business with Tehran.

US President Donald Trump in 2018 pulled out of the international agreement signed with the country to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, which he said was ineffective, and immediately re-established and tightened US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The US State Department imposed punitive measures on Iran-based Abadan Refining Company, three China-based companies (Zhihang Ship Management CO Ltd., New Far International Logistics LLC, Sino Energy Shipping Ltd) and another based in the UAE (Chemtrans Petrochemicals Trading LLC). Three executives from Abadan, New Far and Sino Energy were also targeted.

Meanwhile, the US Treasury Department has added to its blacklist six firms also based in those countries for doing business with Triliance Petrochemical, a company sanctioned in January for its involvement in the sale of Iranian petrochemical products.

Treasury said those funds are "a key revenue source for the Iranian regime, helping to finance its destabilizing support to corrupt regimes and terrorist groups throughout the Middle East and, more recently, Venezuela."

The newly blacklisted companies are the Iranian firms Zagros Petrochemical Company, UAE-based Petrotech FZE and Trio Energy DMCC, and Chinese companies Jingho Technology Co. Limited, Dynapex Energy Limited and Dinrin Limited, based in Hong Kong.

Photo: State Department

US Pointman on Iran Hard Line Quits

Bu Shaun Tandon

The envoy leading President Donald Trump's hardline push on Iran quit on Thursday, months before an election that could reorient US policy.

Brian Hook, a stalwart Republican considered one of the most powerful figures at the State Department, decided to return to the private sector, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

Hook "has achieved historic results countering the Iranian regime," Pompeo said in a statement.

Hook will be replaced by Elliott Abrams, an intellectual architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq who has been leading Trump's unsuccessful campaign to oust Venezuela's leftist president, Nicolas Maduro.

Abrams, known in the 1980s for his staunch defense of right-wing strongmen in Latin America, will handle both Iran and Venezuela, Pompeo said.

Hook has been at the forefront of Trump's campaign against Iran's clerical state which has included pulling out of a nuclear accord and imposing punishing unilateral sanctions.

Hook's decision to head to the private sector comes three months before US elections in which Trump is trailing Democrat Joe Biden in the polls.

Biden was a strong backer of the nuclear deal negotiated under former president Barack Obama and has promised to salvage a diplomatic solution.

Hook exits just as the Trump administration readies a key effort on Iran—seeking to extend an arms embargo on Tehran through the UN Security Council.

If the effort fails, Pompeo and Hook have threatened to employ a disputed legal procedure aimed at forcing UN sanctions against Iran.

'Crisis of Legitimacy'

A dour, bespectacled lawyer whose formal manner seems more out of Britain than his Midwestern home state of Iowa, Hook was put in charge of strategic planning at the State Department following Trump's election.

After becoming secretary of state in 2018, Pompeo made 12 sweeping demands of Iran that included giving up its activities across the Middle East and soon put Hook in charge of the effort.

Tensions soared to a new high in January this year when Trump ordered a drone strike that killed a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, at Baghdad's airport.

Critics say that the effort led by Hook badly backfired with Iran only expanding its regional operations and taking steps out of the nuclear deal with which it had been in compliance.

"Few human beings have done more to advance the Iranian nuclear program than Brian Hook," said Ben Rhodes, one of Obama's closest foreign policy aides.

"It was rolled back when he took his job, now it's moving forward," he wrote on Twitter.

Taken to task on his record at an event Wednesday, Hook said that Iran was facing its worst economic crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and that mass protests in Iraq and Lebanon showed opposition to Tehran.

"They're facing a crisis of legitimacy and credibility with their own people. The regime today clings to power on the basis of brute force," Hook told the Aspen Security Forum.

"And these are not things that we were talking about three and a half years ago when we came into office."

Hook played the lead role in the release of two US citizens imprisoned in Iran, Princeton scholar Xiyue Wang and military veteran Michael White.

He was also faulted by the State Department's internal watchdog over the ousting of a department employee of Iranian descent.

The inspector general did not find that Hook shared bias but said he did not distance himself from a smear campaign.

Hook rejected the findings of the report and Trump later sacked the inspector general, Steve Linick, who had also been conducting an unrelated probe into Pompeo.

Photo: IRNA

Pompeo Warns of UN Sanctions if Iran Arms Ban Ends

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday gave his clearest indication yet that the United States would seek to force UN sanctions on Iran if an arms embargo lapses.

Russia and China, two of the Permanent Five nations that enjoy veto power on the Security Council, want the UN embargo on selling conventional weapons to Iran to end on October 18 as laid out under a 2015 resolution.

Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the United States would introduce a resolution to extend the embargo "in the near future" which "we hope will be met with approval from other members of the P5."

"In the event it's not, we're going to take the action necessary to ensure that this arms embargo does not expire," he said.

The United States has previously said it has the authority to "snap back" UN economic sanctions that were lifted as part of a nuclear deal with Iran.

"We have the capacity to execute snapback and we're going to use it in a way that protects and defends America," Pompeo told the committee.

The 2015 resolution had blessed a denuclearization deal with Iran negotiated by former president Barack Obama from which President Donald Trump pulled out in 2018.

Trump has since repeatedly denounced the accord, but Pompeo argues that the United States remains a "participant" in the accord -- with the right to snap back UN sanctions for violations -- as it was listed in the 2015 resolution.

Even US allies are skeptical about the legal argument and warn that such a move could damage the Security Council as an institution.

France and Britain, the other nations in the P5, support extending the arms embargo but say the greater priority is maintaining a diplomatic solution to stop Iran's nuclear program.

The embargo issue could come to a head days before the US presidential election. Trump's rival Joe Biden backs the Iran agreement.

After leaving the accord, Trump unilaterally imposed US sanctions aimed at strangling Iran's economy and reducing its regional influence.

The Trump administration has demanded that all nations stop buying Iran's oil, its biggest export.

Pompeo on Thursday announced a further expansion of sanctions enforcement, saying the United States would punish anyone who transfers 22 specific metals including forms of aluminum and steel that could be used in Iran's weapons programs.

Photo: State Department

US Seeks to Seize Iran Oil Cargoes Bound for Venezuela

The US Justice Department issued a warrant Thursday to seize the cargoes of four tankers carrying Iranian oil to Venezuela, tying the shipments to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which Washington calls a terror group.

The Justice Department filed a forfeiture complaint and warrant in federal court in Washington for the cargoes of the tankers Bella, Bering, Pandi and Luna—currently en route from Iran to Venezuela.

The US alleges that the shipments involve parties affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which the United States has designated a "foreign terrorist organization."

A court complaint citing a "confidential source" said Mahmoud Madanipour, who has ties to the IRGC, arranged the shipments for Venezuela, using offshore front companies and ship-to-ship transfers to avoid sanctions on Iran.

"Profits from petroleum sales support the IRGC's full range of nefarious activities, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, support for terrorism, and a variety of human rights abuses, at home and abroad," the Justice Department said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear how the US government intended to seize the cargoes.

Photo: IRNA

World Rebukes U.S. Over Iran

By Colum Lynch and Robbie Gramer

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought to reassert America’s waning influence on the world stage, challenging the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to extend a U.N. arms embargo that is due to expire in October. Instead, America’s top diplomat received a scolding from friends and foes alike in the 15-nation council, which roundly criticized Washington for withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal two years ago without a clear plan to limit Tehran’s nuclear activities.

On a day when the European Union pointedly excluded the United States from a “safe list” of countries permitted to travel to the 27-member bloc, the council’s chilly reception of Pompeo added to a portrait of an increasingly isolated United States and underscored how little deference other countries pay the Trump administration as it faces a grim reelection contest. The U.N. debate came amid a sharpening blowback in Washington to revelations that the Trump administration failed to act on months of intelligence warnings that Russia offered Taliban fighters bounties to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan. 

The dispute centered on the fate of the nearly moribund 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which capped Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon but which the United States abandoned in May 2018. European parties to the deal, like Iran, want to keep it alive; the Trump administration wants to kill it before the election, lest any future Democratic administration bring it back to life. 

The latest battleground is one provision of that deal, the planned expiry in October of a U.N. arms embargo on Iran—one of the sweeteners of the nuclear deal. U.S. allies, including the security council’s five European states, share Washington’s concern about Iran’s arms trade, though Europe’s own arms embargo is set to continue until 2023 regardless. But they worry that extending the U.N. arms embargo, in clear violation of the pact signed in 2015, would drive Tehran to kick out nuclear inspectors and set the stage for an even quicker development of its nuclear program. 

“The [Iran nuclear pact], which is the result of compromise, can of course be seen as an instrument that can be improved,” France’s U.N. ambassador, Nicolas de Rivière, told the council. “There is as yet no serious alternative to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and its disappearance would improve neither the regional situation nor the security of our populations.”

Since President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal, Iran has violated key tenets of the accord by increasing its stockpiles of nuclear fuel and resuming its enrichment of uranium, according to assessments from the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

At the opening of Tuesday’s virtual session, Rosemary DiCarlo, a former U.S. State Department official who serves as U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, praised the nuclear pact as a “significant achievement of multilateral diplomacy and dialogue” and expressed “regret” over the U.S. decision to withdraw, noting that Iran was in compliance with the pact before Trump’s abrupt decision to pull the plug.

But she also expressed regret that since July 2019 Iran has violated key provisions of the nuclear pact, surpassing limits on the size of its stockpiles of heavy water and low-enriched uranium and engaging in prohibited nuclear research and development activities. 

DiCarlo also flagged Iran’s role in missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia, as well as arms shipments to proxies in Yemen that appear to run afoul of the provisions of the key U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the nuclear deal. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed claims that Iranian-made weapons were being transferred to Yemen and elsewhere in violation of U.N. sanctions. 

But the draft has little support among major powers at the U.N., reflecting Washington’s isolation on its Iran policy.

“The international community in general and the U.N. Security Council in particular are facing an important decision,” Zarif told the council. “Do we maintain respect of the rule of law, or do we return to the law of the jungle by surrendering to the whims of an outlaw bully?”

The Trump administration this month circulated a draft resolution to extend the arms embargo on Iran, but veto-wielding China and Russia signaled they would not support the U.S. plan. European powers also reacted coolly to the resolution and are expected to introduce their own stopgap proposal to extend parts of the arms embargo for up to six months. It is unclear if the United States would support their plan. 

The Trump administration has charged Tehran with playing a destabilizing role in the Middle East through its support of proxy terrorist groups in the region. Pompeo said that if the United Nations did not extend the arms embargo, it would pave the way for Iran to procure advanced military hardware from Russia and China that would undercut regional stability and potentially threaten capitals in Europe and even South Asia—reiterating misleading claims he made last week about the operational range of high-end Russian and Chinese fighters. 

“If you fail to act, Iran will be free to purchase Russian-made fighter jets that can strike up to a 3,000-kilometer radius, putting cities like Riyadh, New Delhi, Rome, and Warsaw in Iranian crosshairs,” Pompeo told the council during Tuesday’s virtual meeting. 

“Don’t just take it from the United States; listen to countries in the region. From Israel to the Gulf, countries in the Middle East—who are most exposed to Iran’s predations—are speaking with one voice: Extend the arms embargo,” he said. 

Photo: State Department

US Warns Against Dealing With Top Iran Shipper

The United States warned Monday that it would punish any country that deals with Iran's top shipping company, accusing it of contributing to Tehran's contested weapons programs.

The Treasury Department said sanctions came into effect Monday against the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, known by its acronym IRISL, as well as its Shanghai-based subsidiary E-Sail.

Under the sanctions, the United States threatens unilateral action against any government, business or person that does business with IRISL.

"We urge government authorities worldwide to investigate all IRISL and E-Sail activity in your ports and territorial seas and take appropriate action to put a halt to it," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

"The world must be vigilant and take action to prevent Iran from acquiring proliferation-sensitive items that further threaten regional stability and security," he said.

IRISL, which has interests around the globe, is the world's 15th largest shipping line in terms of cargo carried, according to the latest figures available from database Alphaliner.

US officials say that IRISL has shipped sensitive cargo for Iran's military and assisted its ballistic missile program, which Tehran insists is legal as UN Security Council resolutions ban only nuclear-related activity.

IRISL was already under US sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program, but the latest move toughens the ramifications by targeting it more broadly over weapons of mass destruction.

The United States announced the sanctions in December but delayed their implementation, saying it wanted to give countries time to find other ways to conduct humanitarian trade not subject to US sanctions.

President Donald Trump imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran in 2018 when he walked out of a nuclear deal under which Tehran drastically scaled back its atomic activities in exchange for promises of economic relief.

China remains the primary trading partner of Iran, with US allies leaving the country due to the threat of US sanctions.

Photo: Wikicommons

EU: US Ending Nuclear Waivers Means Harder to Check Iran

The European Union's foreign policy chief on Thursday condemned Washington's move to end sanction waivers for countries remaining in the Iran nuclear accord, warning it would make it harder to keep Tehran in check.

Donald Trump's administration announced Wednesday that it was ending the waivers because of a series of "escalatory actions" by Iran aimed at pressuring the United States, which pulled out of the accord in 2018.

But the EU's Josep Borrell highlighted the "enduring importance" of the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), because it was vital to ensuring that Iran's nuclear activities remain above board.

"The agreement remains the best and only way to ensure the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program" Borrell told a United Nations Security Council meeting on Europe-UN relations.

"This is why I regret yesterday's decision by the US not to prolong the waivers for the JCPOA-related nuclear projects.

"This will make it more difficult for the international community to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program."

Iran has taken small steps away from its nuclear commitments in a bid to get Washington to remove sanctions as called for by the 2015 accord.

Trump quit the agreement negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, under which Iran had drastically curbed its nuclear activities.

But the Trump administration until now had issued waivers to allow companies, primarily from Russia, to keep carrying out the work of the agreement without risking legal ramifications in the world's largest economy.

Iran's UN ambassador said that with the end of waivers, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was pulling the "final plug" on the nuclear deal two years after Trump withdrew the US from it.

“Claiming US is STILL 'Participant' is not just preposterous; it's FALSE," the envoy Majid Takht Ravanchi tweeted.

The envoy was referring to Washington's claim that it remains a participant in the deal, despite renouncing it, and can push to extend an arms embargo on Iran due to begin expiring in October.

Photo: Wikicommons

US Ends Sanction Waivers for Nations in Iran Nuclear Deal

The United States said Wednesday it was ending waivers in its sanctions for nations that remain in the Iran nuclear accord, bringing the deal further to the verge of collapse.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was responding to Iran's "brinkmanship" of nuclear steps, which have been aimed at pressuring the United States to remove sanctions as called for by the 2015 accord.

"These escalatory actions are unacceptable and I cannot justify renewing the waiver," Pompeo said in a statement.

President Donald Trump bolted from the agreement negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, under which Iran had drastically curbed its nuclear activities.

But the Trump administration until now had issued waivers to allow companies, primarily from Russia, that are still present in Iran to carry out the agreement.

The United States will notably remove the waivers that allowed the modification of the heavy water reactor in Arak, which prevented it from using plutonium for military use, as well as the export of spent and scrap research reactor fuel.

Pompeo said that the United States was issuing a final 60-day waiver to allow companies involved in the projects to wrap up their operations.

The United States, however, did not move to stop international support for Bushehr, oil-rich Iran's only nuclear power plant, where Russia has been supplying fuel.

Pompeo said the United States was providing a 90-day waiver extension on Bushehr to "ensure safety of operations" but reserved the right to modify it at will.

In justifying the moves, Pompeo also pointed to recent comments by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said it was an "Islamic duty" to fight for the "liberation of Palestine" and denounced supporters of Israel.

Pompeo accused Khamenei of invoking the Holocaust, saying: "The regime's vile rhetoric only strengthens the international community's resolve to counter its threats."

Britain, France and Germany—along with Russia and China—still support the nuclear accord, saying that it was working by reducing Iran's nuclear activities.

The Trump administration, which has close ties both to Israel and Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia, called the deal a "disaster" and said the larger issue was reducing Tehran's activities in the region.

Iran's economy has faced intense pressure over the sanctions, while Trump has also used military force, killing a top Iranian general in a January drone strike.

Photo: State Department

Pompeo Says US to Seek All Ways to Extend Iran Arms Embargo

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Wednesday to use all means available to extend a UN arms embargo on Iran, including working through a nuclear accord that President Donald Trump has trashed.

A ban on selling conventional weapons to Iran ends in October under a 2015 Security Council resolution that blessed the denuclearization accord negotiated by former president Barack Obama.

"We're not going to let that happen," Pompeo told a news conference.

"In the event we can't get anyone else to act, the United States is evaluating every possibility about how we might do that."

Pompeo said he would ask the UN Security Council to prolong the ban.

But China and particularly Russia, which stand to win major new arms contracts with Iran, are certain to oppose an extension. They only agreed to the five-year ban in 2015 as a compromise reached with the Obama administration.

There is one way to avoid a veto by China or Russia -- a participant in the nuclear deal can trigger a return of sanctions by declaring Iran to be in violation.

Pompeo said that the United States will seek action from Britain, France and Germany—which remain part of the nuclear accord.

But the US allies are critical of the US approach, saying that Europe still has a ban on arms exports to Iran and that the nuclear issue is more important.

Pompeo confirmed that the United States was ready to argue that it is itself a participant because it is listed as one in the resolution from 2015, even though Trump has repeatedly said that Washington has bolted the "worst deal ever" after he took over.

"There's nothing magic about this," Pompeo said.

"It's unambiguous, and the rights that accrue to participants of the UN Security Council resolution are fully available to all those participants," he said.

"We're going to make sure that come October of this year, the Iranians aren't able to buy conventional weapons that they would be, given what president Obama and vice president Biden have delivered to the world in that terrible deal."

Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee expected to face Trump in November elections, days after the scheduled expiration of the arms embargo.

UN inspectors said Iran complied with the nuclear deal and drastically reduced its program as it sought promised sanctions relief.

But Trump, who is close to Iran's rivals Saudi Arabia and Israel, said the goal should be to reduce the clerical regime's regional activities and slapped sweeping sanctions.

Photo: GPA

In Twist to Press Arms Ban, US Asserts Role in Iran Deal

By Shaun Tandon and Philippe Rater

President Donald Trump's administration has persistently trashed a nuclear deal with Iran. But as it seeks to extend an arms embargo, it is making the case that it still has a seat at the table.

The push has drawn skepticism from Western allies and has led critics to question if the ultimate aim is to kill the deal entirely, potentially in the final stretch of Trump's re-election campaign.

"You cannot cherry-pick a resolution saying you implement only parts of it but you won't do it for the rest," a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on United Nations members to renew the ban on all conventional arms exports to Iran which is due to expire in October.

He renewed his push last week after Iran said it had launched a military satellite into orbit for the first time -- proving, according to Pompeo, that the clerical regime had been deceitful in saying its space program was for peaceful purposes.

The launch should lead more countries to "understand what President Trump has understood since he first came into office, that the Iran deal was a crazy, bad deal," Pompeo told the Christian Broadcasting Network.

The arms embargo was part of a 2015 UN Security Council Resolution—whose primary purpose was to bless the deal, negotiated by former president Barack Obama, under which Iran drastically scaled back its nuclear program.

Former secretary of state John Kerry has said the five-year embargo was a compromise with Russia and China, which opposed any limits.

Wielding veto power, Russia and China are virtually certain to oppose a new embargo, with Moscow potentially in line for billions of dollars in arms contracts.

But there is one way to skirt a veto—if a party to the deal asserts that Iran is in significant violation of it, which would trigger a return of international sanctions.

A US official and several diplomats said that the Trump administration is pushing forward with the stance, disputed by some, that the United States is able to declare Iran in violation.

In a legal opinion issued last year to please hawkish Republicans, the State Department argued that the United States could do so as it was listed a "participant state" in the 2015 resolution.

'Abject Failure'

The United States, of course, has shattered its own promises under the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was meant to offer economic relief to Iran and is still backed by European powers.

Trump, who is close to Iran's regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Israel, has imposed sweeping unilateral sanctions that include trying to block all of Iran's oil exports as he seeks to reduce Tehran's regional activities.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, responding on Twitter to a New York Times article on the strategy, said that Pompeo had hoped in exiting the deal to "bring Iran to its knees."

"Given that policy's abject failure, he now wants to be JCPOA participant. Stop dreaming: Iranian Nation always decides its destiny," Zarif wrote.

Even most US supporters of Obama's nuclear deal back the arms embargo, with a bipartisan resolution before the Senate seeking its extension.

But some believe Pompeo's motives, or at least the effects, would be broader if he tries to act from within the JCPOA.

"If Pompeo goes through with this plan, snapping back sanctions on Iran collapses the JCPOA," said Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, a research group in Washington.

Even more significant, the move could lead Iran to make good on threats to exit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, she said.

"This is just another step that would undermine US credibility, make future negotiations with Iran more difficult and increase the risk of a nuclear crisis in the region," she said, adding that there were other avenues to address arms exports.

Iran has already stepped back compliance to protest US sanctions as well as a January drone strike that killed powerful general Qasem Soleimani.

A death-knell to the deal would leave a vacuum to reshape Iran policy either as Trump starts a second term or Joe Biden, who strongly backed the accord, enters the White House.

Photo: Wikicommons

Iran Tells US to 'Stop Dreaming' of Extended Arms Embargo

Tehran on Monday told Washington to "stop dreaming" after it was reported that the US plans to prevent the expiry of an international embargo on arms sales to Iran.

The New York Times reported that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "is preparing a legal argument that the United States remains a participant in the Iran nuclear deal that President (Donald) Trump has renounced".

The move was "part of an intricate strategy to pressure the United Nations Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran or see far more stringent sanctions reimposed" on the Islamic Republic, it added.

Decades-old tensions between Tehran and Washington escalated in 2018 when Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA—and reimposed sanctions as part of a campaign of "maximum pressure.”

Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif responded on Twitter to Pompeo's reported plan to extend the arms embargo.

Zarif wrote on Monday that two years ago Pompeo and "his boss declared 'CEASING US participation' in JCPOA, dreaming that their 'max pressure' would bring Iran to its knees.

"Given that policy's abject failure, he now wants to be JCPOA participant," Zarif said.

“Stop dreaming: Iranian Nation always decides its destiny," the foreign minister added.

The JCPOA was agreed in 2015 between Iran and six world powers—Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

It gave the Islamic republic relief from international sanctions in return for limits on its nuclear program.

In response to the US pullout, Iran has gradually rolled back its commitments to the JCPOA, which it says is in accordance with the agreement.

Washington, which accuses Tehran of violating the agreement, wants to prevent the lifting of an arms embargo that is due to expire in October under UN Security Council Resolution 2231—the same 2015 resolution that formalized the JCPOA.

The New York Times said the US was planning to achieve its goal through a new resolution that would bar countries from exporting arms to Iran.

But it added that in order to force the issue Pompeo had approved a plan under which the US would claim it legally remains a "participant state" in the nuclear accord.

Iran, for its part, accuses the United States of violating Resolution 2231 by withdrawing from the nuclear accord.

Photo: IRNA

Democrats Push Back on Sanctions, Citing Coronavirus Fears

By Jack Detsch

Top Democrats in Congress are urging the Trump administration to ease sanctions on Iran, Venezuela, and other countries badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, citing the need to provide medical supplies and humanitarian support.

In a stream of several letters aimed at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top U.S. officials, Democratic members of Congress including presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are pushing for the administration to grant clearly outlined waivers from American sanctions.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy also spearheaded a call by several Democrats to the Trump administration to ease U.S. sanctions against countries, including Iran and Venezuela, hit hard by coronavirus, saying the measures are hampering the free flow of medicines and other humanitarian supplies to the neediest as the pandemic worsens.

“Helping these nations save lives during this crisis is the right thing to do from a moral perspective, but it is also the right thing to do from a national security perspective,” Murphy wrote in the letter sent Thursday to Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “By allowing our sanctions to contribute to the exceptional pain and suffering brought about by the coronavirus outbreaks in both nations, we play into the anti-Americanism that is at the heart of both regimes’ hold on power.” The letter was co-signed by several Senate Democrats, including Chris Van Hollen, Tim Kaine, and Patrick Leahy.

An early draft of the letter sent by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez that was seen by Foreign Policy also calls for a temporary suspension of sanctions, including on the banking and oil sectors that have been heavily targeted since President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018. The letter is expected to be sent to Pompeo and Mnuchin early next week.

The Trump administration has said that it would only lift sanctions—which are aimed at pressuring Iran into a fresh nuclear deal without sunset provisions—once Iran stops its activity of supporting terrorist groups and proxies in the Middle East and halts its ballistic missile program. In February, the United States asked Iran to identify medical or other needs for coronavirus relief through Swiss interlocutors. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus told the U.S.-funded Radio Farda on Thursday that the offer came without preconditions.

Murphy is asking the administration to hold off on the enforcement of sanctions for 90 days that could halt “a rapid humanitarian response” to the spread of the coronavirus in Iran. He also wants the Treasury Department to ease penalties against information technology companies that could provide information on treating or preventing the disease.

Over 30,000 cases of the novel coronavirus have spread across Iran, including to elite military and clerical leaders. Earlier this month, Iranian state radio said that Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of the advisory body to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, had died of COVID-19. Amid the crisis, Iran has asked the International Monetary Fund for $5 billion in critical funds and for supplies of masks, respirators, and other medical equipment.

The debate over whether to modify U.S. sanctions on Iran spilled out onto the editorial pages of major American papers this week, with the New York Times editorial board calling for the Trump administration to allow an IMF loan to move forward and for technical assistance. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board ran a rejoinder on Wednesday.

Some experts say even with sanctions relief or waivers for humanitarian and medical supplies, it’s unclear if countries like Iran have enough foreign currency reserves to buy up medical supplies—or if foreign companies and international banks would be willing to broker the transactions in the first place. “Even if they say they’re not targeting Iran’s humanitarian imports, they’re still chilling the markets overall,” Brian O’Toole, a former CIA and Treasury Department official, told Foreign Policy.

Administration officials also believe Iran’s military and its proxies could immediately take advantage of any broader sanctions relief, even if sanctions were only eased temporarily. “If Iran could suddenly repatriate a bunch of money, or Iran’s [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] funds were unfrozen, it could start to move those into places where it’s hidden, people couldn’t find them as easily, and then you’re stuck back in a place … where you’ve aided U.S. adversaries,” O’Toole said.

The call for the suspension of sanctions coincides with a Democratic effort led by Rep. Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Adam Smith, head of the armed services panel, to keep the U.S. Agency for International Development from halting aid to areas controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, a suspension that’s set to go into effect on Friday.

“USAID is totally stonewalling efforts to push this suspension back, or to create meaningful carve outs for lifesaving programs,” a former U.S. official familiar with the matter told Foreign Policy.

USAID’s assistant administrator for its Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, John Barsa, who is set to take over the agency’s top spot in an acting role next month, strongly supports the suspension of U.S. assistance to Houthi-controlled areas, the former official said, though the Trump administration has been warned that the freeze could lack sufficient carve-outs for bystanders living under the Iran-backed group.

But it’s not clear the legislative effort to urge a course change will have an impact on the Trump administration’s efforts to exact what it calls “maximum pressure” on Iran to force it to rein in proxy groups and efforts at ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Photo: Wikicommons

Pompeo Lands in Saudi for Talks Focused on Iran

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Riyadh Wednesday for talks with Saudi leaders focused on countering Tehran, his first visit since a top Iranian general's killing sent regional tensions soaring.

The top US diplomat, whose visit follows his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa, will hold talks with King Salman and his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as well as Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, State Department officials said.

"We'll spend a lot of time talking about the security issues with the threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran in particular," Pompeo told reporters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa before heading to Riyadh.

Pompeo said the United States was "prepared to talk anytime" to Iran but emphasised that the Iranian regime has "got to fundamentally change their behaviour".

"The pressure campaign continues. It's not just an economic pressure campaign, its diplomatic pressures, isolation through diplomacy as well," he said.

US President Donald Trump, who is closely allied with Saudi Arabia, in 2018 withdrew from a nuclear accord with Iran and imposed sweeping sanctions aimed at reducing Tehran's regional clout.

Pompeo's three-day visit to close ally Saudi Arabia comes in the wake of a US-ordered drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, Iran's most powerful general, as he visited Baghdad on January 3

Regional tensions rose following the killing and Iran responded with missile strikes on US forces in Iraq.

US officials blamed Iran for a September attack on Saudi oil installations, although Riyadh has since appeared keen to engage in cautious diplomacy to ease friction.

Pompeo faces a tough balancing act in Saudi Arabia as he said he would also discuss "human rights" during his visit.

The 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which sparked global condemnation of the crown prince, has tested relations between the two allies.

After Riyadh, Pompeo will fly to Oman to meet the new sultan, Haitham bin Tariq, on Friday.

Pompeo will offer condolences over the death of his predecessor Qaboos, who was the Arab world's longest-serving leader and served as a go-between for Iran and the United States.

Photo: State Department

U.S. to Impose Sanctions on Iran’s Metal Exports and Leaders

By Jordan Fabian and Kevin Cirilli

The Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Iran on Friday, including penalties on the Islamic Republic’s metals and some senior leaders, following Tehran’s attack on U.S. military bases.

The sanctions target the nation’s steel industry, as well as eight senior Iranian officials and other sectors of the economy, including construction, manufacturing, textiles and mining, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.

“We want Iran to simply behave like a normal nation,” Pompeo said at the White House.

The move comes one day after President Donald Trump said Iran would be sanctioned “immediately” for the airstrikes against two U.S. military installations in Iraq, which resulted in no casualties.

The administration first prepared the sanctions in December, before tensions escalated between the U.S. and Iran, leading to the Jan. 2 U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. The new measures are aimed at cracking down on Iran’s few remaining sources of export revenue and squeezing the nation’s economy to force its leaders back into negotiations for a new nuclear agreement.

Tehran has repeatedly rebuffed the Trump administration’s overtures to talk, even as existing sanctions have crippled the Iranian economy. Yet President Hassan Rouhani has confronted street protests against price increases and corruption that has left his government politically vulnerable, potentially benefiting hardliners even more opposed to Washington.

Guidance from the State and Treasury Departments will warn ship insurers, banks, charter companies, port owners, crews and captains that they all face sanctions exposure if they can’t account for the legitimacy of the cargoes they carry.

The administration is seeking to close a significant loophole that allows Iran and other nations to avoid sanctions: ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil, refined petroleum and other goods.

Trump on Wednesday attempted to lower tensions with Iran by standing down from further military actions that could have sparked a new war in the Middle East.

Trump and top administration officials have said they are open to new talks with Tehran, but Iranian leaders have not been eager to reciprocate.

Photo: Wikicommons

Trump Thanks Tehran as American Freed in Prisoner Swap

By Elodie Cuzin

President Donald Trump had rare positive words for Iran on Saturday, thanking the US foe for a "very fair" negotiation to successfully pull off a prisoner swap that saw an American released from Iranian detention amid soaring tensions.

The exchange, which took place in neutral Switzerland, involved a Princeton graduate student jailed in Iran for espionage since 2016 and an Iranian national arrested over a year ago in Chicago.

"Thank you to Iran on a very fair negotiation," tweeted Trump, as Xiyue Wang made his way home to his family. The US leader was expected to welcome Wang in person when he arrives in the United States, after a stop in Germany for medical evaluations.

"It was a one-on-one hostage swap," Trump told reporters. "I think it was great to show than we can do something. It might have been a precursor as to what can be done."

A photo tweeted by the American Embassy in Bern showed Wang on a rainswept tarmac in Zurich with an official blue and white US jet in the background, hugging Ambassador Edward McMullen.

The Chinese-born American was in apparent good health and in "very, very good humor," said a senior US administration official.

Tehran had announced the release of its national, Massoud Soleimani, shortly before Trump revealed that Wang was returning home.

"Glad that Professor Massoud Soleimani and Mr Xiyue Wang will be joining their families shortly," Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted—along with a photograph of himself and the scientist on a plane under the words "Going home."

"Many thanks to all engaged, particularly the Swiss government," which has looked after US interests in Iran in the absence of diplomatic ties, Zarif said.

The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed that the exchange—which it called a "humanitarian gesture"—took place on its territory. Both the US and Iran credited Switzerland with an intensive diplomatic effort to secure the men's release.

"Our country stands ready for further facilitation," the foreign ministry statement said.

‘Hopeful' Sign

The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic ties since 1980, and relations have sharply worsened since Trump withdrew from an international accord giving Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

The arch-enemies came to the brink of military confrontation in June this year when Iran downed a US drone and Trump ordered retaliatory strikes before cancelling them at the last minute.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States was "pleased that Tehran has been constructive in this matter."

Briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, the senior US official noted that Trump "remains committed to talks with Iran without preconditions" -- about Tehran's nuclear program, its "malign activities" in the Middle East, and the deadly mass protests that have gripped the country.

While Iran has so far rebuffed US offers of talks, the official said: "We're hopeful that the release of Mr Wang is a sign that the Iranians may be willing to come to the table to discuss all these issues."

The official also voiced hope that Wang's release signals "the Iranians are realizing that the practice of hostage-taking diplomacy really should come to an end."

A doctoral candidate at Princeton, Wang was conducting research for his dissertation on late 19th- and early 20th-century Eurasian history when he was imprisoned in August 2016. He was serving 10 years on espionage charges.

"He was not a spy, he was not involved in espionage and, and was wrongfully detained from the start," the US official said.

A statement on the Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online website said Wang had been "freed on Islamic clemency."

Soleimani, a professor and senior stem cell researcher at Tehran's Tarbiat Modares University, was arrested on arrival at an airport in Chicago in October 2018 for allegedly attempting to ship growth hormones, according to Iranian media.

The US official confirmed the Justice Department has dropped charges against Soleimani, calling the swap a "reciprocal humanitarian gesture" and a "very, very good deal for the United States."

"There's been absolutely no payments of cash or lifting of sanctions or any sort of concessions or ransom," the official said.

Spying Allegations

Rob Malley, president of the International Crisis Group consultancy, called it a "rare bit of good news on US-Iran front."

"But several other Americans remain unjustly detained in Iran and they should be released too," he cautioned. "They should not be used as pawns in the two countries' fraught relationship."

Foreign nationals still held in Iran include former US soldier Michael R. White, British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, French academic Roland Marchal and Australian university lecturer Kylie Moore-Gilbert.

Two other Australians, travel bloggers Jolie King and Mark Firkin, were released in October by Iran, in another apparent swap for Iranian student Reza Dehbashi.

In September, Negar Ghodskani, an Iranian woman sentenced in the United States for violating sanctions against Tehran was released and returned home after giving birth in custody.

An unknown number of Iranians are detained abroad.

Photo: U.S. Department of State

US Ends Sanction Waivers for Iran's Fordow Nuclear Plant

By Shaun Tandon

The United States announced Monday it would halt sanctions waivers for Iran's Fordow plant, likely ending a key component of a landmark nuclear deal after Tehran said it had resumed enrichment activities.

Piling pressure as protests hit Iran, the move is intended to discourage work led by Russia's state-owned nuclear company Rosatom at the once-secret site, which was supposed to be transformed into a civilian research center under the 2015 agreement.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's announcement of renewed activity at Fordow—one of a series of steps taken by Tehran as it presses Europeans to make good on sanctions relief promised for compliance.

"Therefore the United States will terminate the sanctions waiver related to the nuclear facility at Fordow effective December 15, 2019," Pompeo told a news conference.

"The right amount of uranium enrichment for the world's largest state sponsor of terror is zero," Pompeo said.

"There is no legitimate reason for Iran to resume enrichment at this previously clandestine site. Iran should reverse its activity there immediately," he said.

President Donald Trump last year withdrew from the denuclearization accord and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Iran, aiming to inflict economic pain and reduce the Shiite clerical regime's influence in Arab countries.

But the Trump administration has still granted waivers to let other nations implement the nuclear deal, which was negotiated under former president Barack Obama, without facing penalties in the United States.

Critics of Trump have said that the waivers proved the administration saw the benefits of the deal, which sharply expanded access for international inspectors. Iran had been in compliance before the US withdrawal.

US waivers remain in place for other nuclear sites including Bushehr, a nuclear power plant off the Gulf coast being developed with Russia under safeguards.

Hawkish Republicans have been pressing on Pompeo to end the waivers. Senator Tom Cotton praised the decision as he pointed to the weekend protests in Iran over gas price hikes.

"The mullahs are playing with atoms in an underground bunker at Fordow instead of helping their own people, who are demonstrating in the street," he tweeted.

Latest Step by Iran

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful, has taken a series of measures that fall well short of developing a nuclear weapon but are meant to put pressure on European powers.

The UN's nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran's stock of heavy water for reactors had crossed the level agreed upon in the 2015 accord for the first time.

Iran's stock of heavy water—which can be used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons as an alternative to enriched uranium—was 131.5 tons, above the 130-ton limit, said a spokesperson for the agency in Vienna.

At Fordow, Iran said it began feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into mothballed enrichment centrifuges.

Britain, France, Germany and the European Union said Iran's decision was "inconsistent" with the nuclear deal.

Iran has accused European nations of hypocrisy over the nuclear deal and also attacked the United States for its statements of support for protesters.

Major roads have been blocked, banks torched and shops looted since Friday's abrupt hike in gas prices.

Pompeo again voiced solidarity with the protesters, saying: "The world's watching."

"The Iranian people will enjoy a better future when their government begins to respect basic human rights, abandons its revolutionary posture and its destabilizing foreign policy in the region, and behaves simply like a normal nation," he said.

Photo: State Department

Pompeo Says U.S. Working on Diplomacy After Iran ‘War’ Act

By Mark Niquette

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said the U.S. is “working diligently” toward a diplomatic resolution with Iran after accusing the Islamic Republic of attacks on Saudi Arabian oil fields, but that President Donald Trump is prepared to take other action if necessary.

“Make no mistake about it, if we’re unsuccessful in that and Iran continues to strike out in this way, I am confident that President Trump will make the decisions necessary to achieve our objectives,” Pompeo said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, one of multiple TV appearances ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.

State Secretary Mike Pompeo said Trump and the U.S. is working toward a diplomatic resolution with Iran, but also that the "Iranians are blood-thirsty and looking for war" in his TV rounds on Sunday

Top Pentagon officials on Friday said the U.S. will send a “moderate” number of troops to the Middle East and additional missile defense capabilities to Saudi Arabia in response to last weekend’s attack on oil facilities, which disrupted about 5% of global oil production.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif refused to rule out military conflict in the Middle East, saying in an interview Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “I’m not confident that we can avoid a war.”

Asked whether he’s confident of avoiding a war, Pompeo said, “we’re working towards that.” In a interview airing on CBS, Pompeo said the U.S. will respond in a way that reflects what he called “an attack by Iran on the world” and a “state-on-state act of war.” He said the U.S. is looking for a diplomatic resolution, while “apparently the Iranians are blood-thirsty and looking for war.”

Pompeo said the U.S. maximum-pressure campaign, which includes sanctions on Iran’s central bank and sovereign-wealth fund, is working and that the Iranian economy will shrink by about 10% to 15% this year.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said there’s still room for more sanctions.

“Although we’re pretty much maxed out on Iran, we will begin to sanction third-party entities where we see violations,” he said.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that economic sanctions aren’t enough because Iranians “would eat grass if that’s what it took” and that military action is also needed. He suggested targeting Iran’s oil refineries and that Iran knows it would never win a war with the U.S.

“I don’t want a war with Iran, but I want them to stop, and the only way they’re going to stop is to pay a price,” Graham said. “And the price I want them to pay is to lose some of their military capability.”

Photo: State Department