WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday warned Tehran would be hit with the “strongest sanctions in history” and cautioned European firms against continuing to do business with it, toughening up Washington’s policy line after its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. “Who are you to decide for Iran and the world?” Rouhani said in a statement carried by multiple Iranian news agencies. Iran foe Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Pompeo’s speech, and urged the rest of the world to follow suit. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the sort of “jumbo Iran deal” Pompeo envisioned would not be “very easy to achieve in anything like a reasonable timescale.”And the EU’s foreign policy chief said there was “no alternative” to the Iran nuclear deal. Critics rounded on Pompeo’s speech, saying his demands could have been made without pulling America from the nuclear deal.

Source: New Strait Times May 21, 2018 20:48 UTC