On May 8, 2018, the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. The deeply flawed deal failed to protect the American people from the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions and contained other troubling provisions.
On the deal’s five-year anniversary, October 18, 2020, important restrictions run out on the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. The Iranian regime will be free to sell weapons to anyone, including terrorist proxies, and countries like Russia and China will be able to sell the Iranian regime tanks, missiles and air defense equipment. This could start a new arms race in the Middle East and further destabilize the region and the world.
Another ban, restricting the travel of certain individuals, including Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Quds Force, and those who worked on the regime’s nuclear weapons program, expires the same day.
The United States has imposed sanctions on major sectors of the Iranian economy, measures that have dramatically reduced the regime’s military spending and support for terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah. Those sanctions do not restrict medicine, agricultural products or humanitarian aid to the Iranian people.
The U.S. will continue its pressure campaign until a comprehensive deal is reached with Iran that addresses the wide range of Iran’s malign behavior.
“We urge our allies and partners to increase the pressure on the Iranian regime until it stops its destabilizing behavior,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet.
The clock is ticking. Time remaining before the UN arms embargo on Iran expires and 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. https://t.co/oxsXNiJ4Q3 pic.twitter.com/o4HpES3GKs
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 12, 2019
