The United States has reimposed last night a new series of international sanctions against Iran, targeting its oil and banking sectors, as part of Washington’s efforts to pressure the Islamic Republic to abandon its malign activities around the world and agree to re-negotiate an agreement over its nuclear program. The move, which was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump in May, will demand from international companies to choose between doing business with the United States or with Iran, a fact that saw hundreds of companies from across the world, including from Europe, abandoning the Islamic Republic. In an interview to CBS’ Face the Nation, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed that the “world understands” that the sanctions are important to bring about “desperately needed” change, and will deprive the Islamic Republic of having the wealth to foment terror around the world. “The European companies will not be permitted to do business with both the United States and with Iran. Frankly, since May, since the President’s announcement of withdrawal from the ill-fated agreement, European companies have fled Iran in great numbers – hundreds of businesses have departed Iran. The whole world understands that these sanctions are real, that they are important, that they drive the Iranian peoples opportunity to make the changes in Iran that they so desperately want and stop Iran from having the wealth and money that they need to continue to foment terror around the world,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
According to President Donald Trump, the new sanctions regime are the “strongest sanctions” ever imposed against the Ayatollah regime – the latest in a series of measures have derailed Iran’s ability to take over the Middle East. “they’re the strongest sanctions we’ve ever imposed and we’ll see what happens with Iran but they’re not doing very well I can tell you Iran is not doing very well it’s a big difference since I’ve been in office when I came to office if you go a day before it looked like Iran was going to take over the Middle East it was a question of literally less than years very quickly and now nobody’s talking about that so we’ll see what happens but the Iran sanctions have gone into effect of the strongest sanctions that our country has ever issued,” US President Donald Trump said.
Meanwhile in the Bulgarian city of Varna, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the newly imposed sanctions against Iran, re-emphasizing the importance of uniting the world to confront Tehran’s dangerous aspirations. Speaking at a meeting of leaders from Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Romania, the Israeli Prime Minister underlined that the American sanctions had already forced the Islamic Republic to scale back on its market investments to terror organizations across the Middle East. “I want you to know that they the sanctions that have already been imposed we could see a market decrease in the amount of money that goes to these various aggressive in terrorist activities of Iran which is already having showing its signs and I believe that Iranian aggression will be further constricted by these sanctions,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has also, for the first time, referred to the killing of Journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which took place early last month in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul. While the Israeli leader condemned the alleged assassination as “horrendous,” he emphasized that the international community must not lose its focus on “what’s important” – asserting the stability of Saudi Arabia as an imperative factor to confronting Iran’s malign activities. “what happened and they they stand bull council it was horrendous and it should be duly dealt with yet at the same time I say it’s very important for the stability of the world of the region and of the world that Saudi Arabia remains stable and I think that a way must be found to achieve both goals because I think that the larger problem is Iran and I think that we have to make sure that Iran does not continue the malign activities that it has been doing over the last few weeks in Europe,” Netanyahu said.
With regard to Iran’s malign activities in Europe, Netanyahu confirmed that Israel had indeed unveiled the terror plots by the Islamic Republic’s security services in France and Demark, a fact that clearly indicates that Tehran’s malign activities know-no-bounds. “we are helped uncover two terrorist attacks one in Paris and the other one in Copenhagen organized by the Iranian Secret Service and I think that blocking Iran is uppermost in our agenda for security not merely for Israel but I believe for Europe and the world as well,” Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile in the Islamic Republic, thousands of Iranians took to the streets to mark the 29th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The incident, which took place on the 4th of November, 1979, saw Iranian student activists, in co-ordination with radical Islamic clerics, storming the U.S. embassy and taking 90 Americans hostage. Fifty-two of the hostages were held captive for 444 days, with the students demanding the extradition of the deposed Shah from the United States. During this weekend’s protests, which were widely broadcast on state television, the top commander of Iran’s revolutionary guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, vowed that the Islamic Republic would resist and defeat the United States. “Today, their (the U.S.) only hope is an economic and psychological war focused on Iran.” / “But America’s plots and its plans for economic sanctions, sanctions on Iran, will be defeated through continued resistance by the people,” Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, Iran’s Chief Commander – Islamic Revolutionary Guards.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader told his followers during his weekly teachings that the United States was on the decline. According to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Washington’s efforts would not last long, as the power of the United States and its policy of “soft power” have worn out, which ultimately means its gradual demise. “The U.S. is much weaker today than what it was 40 years ago when the (1979) revolution was victorious. The power of the U.S. is on the decline, this is the important point. Most of the world’s politicians and global affair analysts believe that the U.S.’s soft power is worn out, it’s being destroyed.” / “Those who want us to compromise with the U.S. draw a groundless and unfounded plan. The U.S. is on the decline,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader said.