WASHINGTON, January 14. /TASS/. The United States will continue its policy of sanctions against Iran as long as Tehran goes ahead with its nuclear ambitions, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said on Monday.
"Our sanctions will continue until the regime stops its terrorist activity and commits to never having nuclear weapons and permits a verification regime which can give the world confidence that that will not take place," he said in a speech at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
"We have re-established deterrence, but we know it’s not everlasting, that risk remains. We are determined not to lose that deterrence," Pompeo added.
The future of the Iranian nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was called in question after the United States’ unilateral withdrawal on May 8, 2018 and Washington’s unilateral oil export sanctions against Tehran. Iran argues that all other participants, Europeans in the first place, ignore some of their own obligations in the economic sphere, thus making the deal in its current shape senseless. In this connection, Iran began suspending some of its commitments related to uranium enrichment and research activities.