On Thursday 12 July, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Europeans to support his country's efforts to isolate Iran on the economic level, in order to force the Iranians to negotiate a full agreement. In Brussels, he met High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.
"We ask our allies and partners to join our economic pressure campaign against Iran’s regime", Pompeo tweeted. "We must cut off all funding the regime uses to fund terrorism and proxy wars", he justified. According to Pompeo, Iran continues "to send weapons across the Middle East, in blatant violation of UN Security Council resolutions" and it "wants to start trouble wherever it can. It’s our responsibility to stop it", he added.
During a meeting with a few journalists on 12 July, Pompeo's political adviser, Brian Hook, developed the thinking on this. "We have launched a campaign of maximum economic pressure to deprive the regime of income to finance terrorism, and to avoid it having the possibility of preparing acts of terrorism in Europe", he said, stating that this pressure was added to diplomatic isolation. Pompeo is going round the world to explain "how Iran is using the income from oil production and other trade activities to finance terrorism", Hook stated. "After adoption of the agreement, Iran spent over $16 billion to support the brutal Assad regime, his partners and intermediaries in Syria, Iraq and Yemen", he said, adding that Tehran spends $700 million every year to support Hezbollah. In his view, the lifting of sanctions as part of the Iran nuclear deal enabled the regime to increase its military spending by 37% "which is much bigger than the economic growth over the same period". "This lifting of sanctions enabled Iran to extend its operations abroad", he said. "I don't think anyone can say the attitude of the Iranians has improved" since the deal, he added. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)