Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin announced President Donald Trump’s administration placed sanctions on Iran’s textiles, mining, and iron ore sectors.
The sanctions come after Iran attacked two Iraqi military bases with American troops.
Mnuchin stated that the administration chose the eight “senior Iranian officials for their involvement and complicity in Tuesday’s ballistic missile strikes.”
The eight Iranian officials include ” Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council; Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, the Deputy Chief of Staff of Iranian armed forces; and Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij militia of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).”
Pompeo told reporters that intelligence indicated Iran wanted to kill more Americans, which justifies the new sanctions:
“There is no doubt in my judgment as I observed the Iranian activity in the region that night, they had the full intention of killing US forces, whether that was our military folks or diplomatic folks in the region,” Pompeo said.He added: “I’m confident that the response the President has taken is appropriate. The President has said we don’t want war. We want Iran to behave like a normal nation.”
Pompeo also told the reporters that the government had “specific information on an imminent threat” of an attack on Americans:
“We had specific information on an imminent threat. And those threats included attacks on US embassies. Period, full stop,” Pompeo told reporters.Asked how precise the administration’s intelligence of an imminent threats was, here’s how Pompeo responded:”I don’t know exactly which minute. We don’t know exactly which day it would have been executed. But it was very clear: Qasem Soleimani himself was plotting a broad, large-scale attack against American interests, and those attacks were imminent.”
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