U.S. will enforce sanctions against Iran, Pompeo says

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that the United States will fully enforce sanctions against Iran, scheduled to be put back in place Monday.

“The United States is going to enforce these sanctions,” Pompeo told reporters returning with him from a summit in Southeast Asia. Asked about Tehran’s prospects for evading the prohibitions on financial transactions and eventually oil purchases from Iran, he said Iran will not succeed.

“It’s an important part of our efforts to push back against Iranian malign activity,” he said of the sanctions.

As part of a historic 2015 agreement between Iran and six world powers, including the United States, U.S. and international sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear activity were suspended once Tehran accepted technical limits on its program. By almost all accounts, the wide spectrum of U.S. and multilateral sanctions were responsible for getting Iran to the negotiating table.

But President Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in May. The first round of financial sanctions should return Monday. And more punishing oil sanctions will return in November.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attended the summit of Southeast Asian nations that just concluded. According to his taunting tweets, Zarif assiduously worked the room in Singapore, urging countries to continue doing business with Iran even after the resumption of U.S. sanctions.

Countries and businesses that go along, however, could be exposed to secondary U.S. sanctions. Mindful of the high cost, some foreign businesses that took advantage of the diplomatic breakthrough have begun winding down their operations in Iran.

Pompeo set a high bar for tensions to ease and trade to start flowing again. He said it will require “enormous change” by the Iranian government to break free of the U.S. sanctions yoke. He insisted that most diplomats at the Singapore summit agree with the United States.

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