Warning that sanctions and an arms embargo on Iran will expire in the coming months, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday urged America’s allies to pressure Iran to stop its “destabilizing behavior.”
“The clock is ticking,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter, together with an image of a clock counting down. “Time remaining before the UN arms embargo on Iran expires and [IRGC Quds Force commander] Qasem Soleimani’s travel ban ends. We urge our allies and partners to increase the pressure on the Iranian regime until it stops its destabilizing behavior,” the post continued.
The post also included a link to a State Department fact sheet page on Iran, which included an appeal against the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
“The Islamic regime in Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror. For over 40 years their malign behavior and support for terrorist proxies has spread uncurbed,” the page states.
“The implementation of the JCPOA, informally known as the ‘2015 Iran Nuclear Deal’ has placed even more resources and money at the regime’s disposal, furthering the reach and aggression of their malign activities. This is why the United States left the JCPOA and implemented decisive sanctions to curb the regime’s ability to fund terror,” it continues.
The page also warns that the “head of the brutal Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Soleimani, would be eligible for international travel in October 2020, and that Iran would also be able to sell military equipment around the world at that time, which “could start a new arms race in the Middle East and further destabilize the region and the world.”
Last week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran would enter negotiations with Washington, but only if America lifts its sanctions against the country, which he called “economic terrorism.”
The United States reapplied sanctions against Iran after withdrawing from the JCPOA on May 8, 2018, and announced financial sanctions against Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, as well as against Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.