Washington | The United States on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) imposed broad sanctions targeting Iran, blacklisting a foundation controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and taking aim at what Washington called Iran’s human rights abuses a year after a deadly crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.
The sanctions, which also targeted Iran’s intelligence minister, are the latest action to reinforce the “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran pursued by President Donald Trump’s administration. They come little more than two months before Mr Trump is due to hand over power to Joe Biden after losing the November 3 election.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in Israel on a farewell tour of the Middle East, urged other nations to take action against Iran for its human rights abuses.
“Sanctions are part of the pressures creating a new Middle East, bringing together countries that suffer the consequences of Iran’s violence and seek a region more peaceful and stable than before,” he said.
Mr Pompeo was set to pay an unprecedented visit to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, reportedly planning a trip to Psagot winery, near the Palestinian city of Ramallah.
It would mark the first time a US secretary of state has ventured into an Israeli settlement on an official tour.
Read the article by Daphne Psaledakis and Humeyra Pamuk in the Australian Financial Times.