The United States will impose sanctions against four entities from Russia and China that Washington believes assisted Iran in developing its missile program
Eliott Abrams, the U.S. special representative for Iran and Venezuela, said this.
According to him, appropriate measures will be taken already on Wednesday.
“I will announce to you what we will announce later in Washington: today we impose sanctions against four legal entities for their activities that contribute to Iran’s missile program, for the transfer to Iran of technologies aimed at developing its missile program”, – the U.S. special representative said. – These are four legal entities in China and Russia,” he said.
Abrams added that the administration of incumbent Republican President Donald Trump will continue to pressure Tehran and will not stop imposing sanctions as long as it is possible.
“We have only one president at the same time. And our policy now will be exactly the same until January 20 (inauguration of the newly elected president) – this is the policy of maximum pressure”, – he stressed. – “We will have the next week, and then one more week, and then one more week – until December and January. There will be sanctions related to weapons, weapons of mass destruction related to human rights. So it will continue for a couple more months – until the very end”.
According to the U.S. special representative, the new administration of Democrat Joseph Biden will not be able to immediately radically change the policy towards Iran, although earlier in his election program he stated about the possibility of return of the U.S. to the nuclear deal.
“There is a view that the new administration can come and ‘push the switch’ as if it were a light switch: there was no JCAP (Joint Comprehensive Action Plan on Iran’s nuclear program), now we are turning JCAP back on. I’ll tell you it’s not that simple”, – a U.S. diplomat is convinced.
According to Abrams, it’s impossible to go back to the agreement right away, because the situation in the world has changed since Trump’s presidency, and many countries in the region are already sceptical about maintaining the JCAP .
“I don’t think this idea that you can just ‘push the switch’ works. In my own opinion, the real process of renegotiation of the agreement, even if I wanted to return to the JCAP , will take many months”, – he believes.