U.S. urges other nations
to sanction Iran over ballistic missiles
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-urges-other-nations-to-sanction-iran-over-ballistic-missiles/2018/04/28/eb7c8613-686d-4bff-b05a-7070f8611aea_story.html?utm_term=.a65292b2f773
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks with Saudi's Foreign Minister
Adel al-Jubeir upon his arrival Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Saudi Press
Agency via Reuters)
By Carol Morello April
28 at 4:07 PM Email the author
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The United States is asking its allies
around the world to place more sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile
program, U.S. officials said Saturday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived
in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of a three-country trip in the Middle East.
“Iran’s ballistic missile program is an international threat to peace
and security,” said a senior State Department official, speaking to reporters
on condition of anonymity about talks Pompeo is having in Riyadh and will hold
later this weekend in Israel and Jordan.
“We are urging nations around the world to sanction individuals and
entities associated with Iran's missile program, and it’s been a big part of
our discussions with the Europeans.”
The campaign to urge other nations to crack down on Iran is
reminiscent of the maximum-pressure campaign the United States has been waging
to get North Korea to negotiate an end to its nuclear program.
It carries particular resonance in Riyadh, which has been hit numerous
times over the past four months by missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthi
rebels in neighboring Yemen. Just Saturday morning, a few hours before Pompeo
arrived from a NATO meeting in Brussels, Saudi Arabia said it shot down four
missiles launched from the Yemeni side of the border.
The sharpened focus on Iran’s missile programs comes as President
Trump is nearing a May 12 deadline to decide whether to extend waivers on
sanctions against Iran that were suspended when a multination agreement was
struck in 2015 to curb Tehran’s nuclear program.
The United States has been negotiating with European allies to find a
way to cobble together what it calls a supplementary agreement that would squeeze
Iran over issues such as its missile program.
The administration considers the program a “priority threat that must
be addressed.” The discussions with the Europeans have involved ballistic and
cruise missiles, as well as space-launch-vehicle activities related to
intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“Iran possesses the largest ballistic-missile arsenal in the region,”
the State Department official said. “Iran’s missiles prolong war and suffering
in the Middle East. They threaten our security and economic interests and they
especially threaten Saudi Arabia and Israel. There is a growing international
awareness of the need to impose costs on Iran’s missile programs and to do so
urgently.”
In his maiden foreign trip since being sworn in as secretary of state
Thursday, Pompeo is expected to keep the focus on Iran.
Saudi Arabia, the chief regional rival to Iran, is considered key in
the effort to counter Tehran’s ambitions.
Another senior State Department official said Pompeo will urge the
Saudis to settle their dispute with Qatar, which is the subject of a punishing
economic blockade imposed by the Saudis and other Gulf countries. The United
States says the dispute is benefiting Iran as much as it hurts Qatar, and holds
all countries involved in the squabble to be partially to blame.
“We see in the cleavage lines . . . room for Iran to play, and room
for a less-than-maximally-effective effort against the other problems in the
region, namely the fight against ISIS and violence of Sunni jihadism,” the official
said.
Pompeo will discuss the administration’s efforts to rein in Iran when
he talks Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then heads
to Amman to speak with King Abdullah II. He has no plans to meet with
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas or any other Palestinians, either
in the West Bank or in Amman, U.S. officials said.
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