US pledges to stand by Iranian people while crippling regime
abu dhabi — Reiterating its support for the people of Iran, the US administration has assured that the newly-imposed sanctions are not aimed at punishing them but to mount pressure on the regime to behave.
In a teleconference with journalists, Brian Hook, US Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Adviser to Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said Trump administration stands with the people of Iran and their legitimate demands.
“An important component of our sanctions, of our diplomacy, is standing with the Iranian people. Iranian people are the longest suffering victims of the regime’s brutality and economic mismanagement. The US does not sanction humanitarian goods or the sale of food, agricultural commodities, medicine or medical devices. It has never been our policy to target humanitarian trade with Iran.”
His comments came close on the heels of the Trump administration’s decision on Monday to reimpose sanctions on Iran that were lifted in 2015 under a nuclear accord negotiated by Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. The sanctions are imposed on more than 700 individuals and entities including shipping companies, banks and oil exporters.
According to the US official, the problems faced by Iranian people are caused by the regime and not by the United States.
“The Iranian people have had 39 years of economic mismanagement. The Iranian regime is the direct cause of the impoverished Iranian economy. It’s a revolutionary regime that spends its money on violence and terrorism around the Middle East.”
Hook said Iran chose to invest the $1.5 billion it received in cash after the sanctions were lifted in 2015, on exporting terror and destabilising the Middle East than investing in its own people.
“The Iranian regime was given the best opportunity it will ever have from the US to get on a better footing when the nuclear deal was agreed to.
They received more than $100 billion in sanctions relief, $1.5 billion in cash, and instead of investing that money in its people, they decided to spend it, as they always do, in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, and with Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad.”
“We would observe deep corruption, self-dealing, the Iranian regime robbing its own people blind, and then all of the billions of dollars they spend — $4.6 billion to Assad, $700 million a year to Lebanese Hezbollah, hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the Houthis in Yemen. The list goes on.”
Hook said the sanctions are aimed at financially crippling Iran by zero oil imports.
Trump’s policy is of exerting maximum economic pressure on Iran “until it changes its behaviour and stops being a key driver of global instability and terror.”
“The purpose of these sanctions is to greatly reduce the Iranian regime’s capacity to fund its broad range of violent activities, its destabilising activities around the Middle East and we are placing unprecedented financial pressure on the regime so that it will agree to a solution that will prevent Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapon and end its broad range of malign activities.”
Hook said the oil sanctions have taken one million barrels of Iranian oil off the market.
“More than 20 countries that imported Iranian oil prior to May have zeroed out their imports because of our sanctions. More than 100 major companies have withdrawn their business from Iran or cancelled their planned investment, leading to tens of billions of dollars in lost investment.”
“Today the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on more than 50 Iranian banks and their subsidiaries.”
And we have every expectation that all European banks will avoid doing business with these 50 banks,” he added.
Iranian people are the longest suffering victims of the regime’s brutality. The US does not sanction humanitarian goods or the sale of food and agricultural commodities.
Brian Hook, US special representative for Iran