Pompeo said he expects sanctions will change Iranian government's behavior

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo predicted Sunday that the remaining sanctions against Iran that resume Monday will change the Tehran government’s behavior in the region.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Pompeo said the sanctions — the last ones to snap back after the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal — aim to get Tehran to stop supporting militants in the Middle East, stop testing missiles and treat its own citizens with more respect.

“I am very confident the sanctions that will be reimposed Monday — not only crude oil sanctions, but financial sanctions that are being put in place by the Treasury Department, and over 600 designations of individuals and companies in Iran — will have the intended effect: to alter Iran’s behavior,” he said. “That’s our expectation.”

[U.S. lowers the sanctions boom on Iran, again]

Sunday marks the end of a 180-day deadline the United States set before the second round of sanctions lifted under the 2015 deal were to resume. Although the sanctions are against the financial and shipping sectors, the most significant measures prohibit purchases of Iranian oil, which provides 80 percent of Tehran’s tax revenue.

Starting Monday, all countries and businesses that buy oil from Iran risk secondary sanctions from the United States, and the administration has vowed to pursue offenders aggressively. Virtually all multinational companies that had started doing business in Iran after sanctions were suspended in 2016 have pulled out. That has helped send the Iranian rial plummeting and hurt ordinary Iranians amid spiraling prices for basic goods.

[A foiled assassination plot in Denmark may have just cost Iran a partner against Trump]

But only a handful of countries support the U.S. action, and Iranian officials have said that the reimposed sanctions underscore how isolated the United States is. Many Middle East analysts also are skeptical that Iran will change its behavior in any way, in a show of defiance.

Pompeo has defended the administration’s decision to grant temporary waivers on oil sanctions to eight nations, including some of Iran’s biggest oil customers.

The secretary of state has not named the countries, though Turkey has said it has received notice and is among them. China, South Korea, Japan and India also are expected to get waivers. Pompeo said all had made significant reductions in their Iran oil purchases already but “need a little bit more time to get to zero.”

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