Sanctions aim to starve Iran of revenue: Pompeo

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday stated that the sanctions against Iran were an "unprecedented campaign of economic pressure" with the objective to "starve" the Iranian regime of revenue it uses to fund violent actions throughout the Middle-East and around the world.

Addressing a presser here, Pompeo cited Denmark's intelligence uncovering an Iranian assignation plot as proof for the need to impose the sanctions and warned Iran to "either do a 180-degree turn from its outlaw course of action and act like a normal country, or it can see its economy crumble."

Pompeo further stated that the US hopes "an agreement with Iran is possible," however, failure to change their ways will invite relentless pressure from the US.

"As a reflection of that resolve, today we're re-imposing all sanctions that were previously lifted under the nuclear deal. This includes sanctions on energy, banking, and ship-building industries," Pompeo said.

The Secretary of State said that the President Donald Trump Administration has targeted as many as 168 Iranian entities through 19 rounds of sanctions since it came into office in 2016, adding that "today's sanctions will accelerate the rapid decline of international economic activity in Iran since the implementation of our strategy in May."

Firing warning shots to countries from engaging in business with Iran, Pompeo said, "I promise you that doing business with Iran in defiance of our sanctions will ultimately be a much more painful business decision than pulling out of Iran."

He also stated that over 20 importing nations have already "zeroed out" their crude oil purchases, "taking more than one million barrels of crude oil per day off the market."

The former CIA Director said that "specific circumstances" have warranted temporary allotments to a handful of countries, with China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey being exempted from the sanctions.

Each of those countries has reduced their oil purchases from Iran and two have completely stopped importing Iranian oil until the sanctions are not lifted, Pompeo said.

Speaking on Iran's nuclear program, three non-proliferation projects have been allowed to continue, which will improve oversight on the country's civil nuclear program and "make these facilities less susceptible to illicit and illegal nuclear uses."

"Rest assured, Iran will never come close to getting a nuclear weapon on President Trump's watch," Pompeo said.

Earlier today, Trump said that the US sanctions levied today are the strongest ever on the country's shipping, financial and energy sectors.