Mike Pompeo says US will put 'unprecedented financial pressure' on Iran

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili speaks ahead of a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department in Washington, DC. AFP

The United States will increase the financial pressure on Iran with the "strongest sanctions in history," after Washington pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday.

"We will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime. The leaders in Tehran will have no doubt about our seriousness," Pompeo said in his first major foreign policy address since moving to the State Department from the CIA.

"Iran will never again have carte blanche to dominate the Middle East," he said in outlining the new US strategy on handling the Islamic regime, including 12 tough conditions from Washington for any "new deal" with Tehran.

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