Pompeo: Latest Iran sanctions will prevent Tehran the ability to back terrorism
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared on Thursday that the latest batch of sanctions on 18 Iranian banks will prevent Tehran from the ability to support terrorist activities and nuclear extortion that threatens the world.
Pompeo related: Our maximum economic pressure campaign will continue until Iran is willing to conclude a comprehensive negotiation that addresses the regime’s malign behavior.
The Treasury Department declared the US Department of Treasury was imposed sanctions on 16 Iranian banks for their role in the country’s financial sector, and one bank for being owned or controlled by another sanctioned Iranian bank and one military-affiliated bank. In fact, previous designations have covered some of them but the move of Thursday put them under the same authority that covering Iran’s entire financial sector.
Pompeo reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei has used funding destined for the Iranian people and the response to the coronavirus pandemic, to rise funding for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and doubled the funding for the regime’s Basij forces that terrorize the Iranian people every single day.
Although criticism that the sanctions will affect humanitarian needs, including medicine and food, Pompeo, like US officials earlier Thursday, repeated that Washington supported Iranian people, saying : Today’s actions pursuant to E.O. 13902 do not affect existing authorizations and exceptions for humanitarian exports to Iran, which remain in full force and effect.
The US diplomat added: We are committed to continuing the Iranian people’s access to humanitarian goods and other essential goods and services, and we reaffirm the United States’ offer to assist Iran in its response efforts to the COVID-19 outbreak.
