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US Set to Introduce New Iran Sanctions

VOA News

   VOA's national security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this
   report.

   The United States is set to introduce new sanctions against Iran on
   Monday, seeking to put additional pressure on the country's economy in
   order to extract changes in behavior from its government.

   Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the new measures "significant,"
   but declined to give specific details to reporters ahead of the
   official announcement.

   He spoke just before embarking on a trip to Saudi Arabia and the United
   Arab Emirates to continue the Trump administration's effort to build a
   coalition of allies to counter Iran.

   "The world should know that we will continue to make sure it's
   understood that this effort that we've engaged in to deny Iran the
   resources to foment terror, to build out their nuclear weapon system,
   to built out their missile program, we are going to deny them the
   resources they need to do that thereby keeping American interests and
   American people safe all around the world," Pompeo said.

   Iran has denied working on nuclear weapons and signed an agreement in
   2015 with the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany
   to allay those concerns by limited its nuclear activity in exchange for
   sanctions relief.

   But U.S.-Iran relations have deteriorated under President Donald
   Trump's tenure, particularly since his decision last year to withdraw
   from the nuclear deal and put in place new economic sanctions.

   Trump objected to the deal as being too weak and not including limits
   on Iran's ballistic missile program.

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