LONDON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would not be held hostage to “nuclear blackmail” by the Iranian regime in a tweet on Tuesday.
Pompeo tweeted a video titled “US Policy on Iran Sanctions, Explained” with which he also said Iran had “sown instability and terror” since coming to power in 1979 and continuted to threaten the US and its allies.
“The Trump administration didn’t accept the status quo and reimposed sanctions, initiating a campaign of maximum pressure. America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail,” he added.
In the video, State Department spokeswoman Geraldine Gassam Griffith said Tehran had, for decades, been the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism and continued to funnel money and weapons to proxies around the Middle East, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Griffith also said that Iran had carried out assissnations on five continents and attacks on vital installations such as Saudi oil facilities and Iraqi bases.
Referencing the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, which President Trump pulled the US out of in 2018, Griffith also said the deal had given Iran access to $150 billion to fund its proxies.
With Tehran continuing its malign behavior, the spokeswoman said Washington had no choice but to restore strict sanctions and maximum pressure on the Iranian regime.
