US mulling ‘strongest sanctions’

Iran’s Rouhani dismisses threats as Europeans criticize Pompeo speech

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned Teheran would be hit with the “strongest sanctions in history” and cautioned European firms against continuing to do business with it, toughening up Washington’s policy line after its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

In his first major foreign policy address since moving to the State Department from the CIA, the longtime Iran hawk and ardent opponent of the 2015 pact, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, outlined an aggressive series of moves designed to counter Teheran, which he called the world’s top sponsor of terror.

“We will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime. The leaders in Teheran will have no doubt about our seriousness,” Pompeo said in a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.

“This sting of sanctions will be painful if the regime does not change its course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen to one that rejoins the league of nations.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani quickly dismissed the threats, saying the rest of the world no longer accepts Washington making decisions on their behalf.

“Who are you to decide for Iran and the world?” Rouhani said in a statement.

“The world today does not accept that the United States decides for the world. Countries have their independence.”

Pompeo said if Iran was to abide by stricter terms, including ending its ballistic missile program and its interventions in regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria, the US would lift its new sanctions.

President Donald Trump has long said the 2015 deal with Iran — also signed by Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — did not go far enough, and now wants the Europeans and others to support his hard line strategy.

The deal was designed to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The international community, including top US officials, have said Teheran had been in compliance.

But Trump despised the deal, pointing to other aspects of Iranian behavior not covered in the pact, and on May 8 he pulled the US out.

‘No alternative’

For now, the European Union is trying to persuade Iran to stay in the agreement, even without US participation.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the sort of “jumbo Iran deal” Pompeo envisioned would not be “very easy to achieve in anything like a reasonable time scale”.

And the EU’s foreign policy chief said there was “no alternative” to the nuclear deal.

“Secretary Pompeo’s speech has not demonstrated how walking away from the JCPOA has made or will make the region safer from the threat of nuclear proliferation or how it puts us in a better position to influence Iran’s conduct in areas outside the scope of JCPOA,” Federica Mogherini said.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, attending a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, said he was not surprised by Pompeo’s critique of the Iran deal, before adding: “We do not see at this time a better alternative.”

Maas said he will travel to Washington to talk with Pompeo this week.