Pompeo and Mnuchin briefing on new Iran sanctions: transcript

Key points

• Mnuchin announced an executive order allowing primary and secondary sanctions on Iranian construction, manufacturing, textiles and mining, plus 17 steel and iron entities and eight senior officials.
• Pompeo said the sanctions target the regime's security apparatus and that oil revenues are down 80 percent under the current administration.
• Asked about the imminent threat, Pompeo said specific intelligence pointed to attacks on U.S. embassies and military facilities, though not the exact day or minute.
• Pompeo said it was likely an Iranian missile shot down the Ukrainian plane, but the investigation should finish before a final determination.
• Pompeo said talks with Iraq on the structure of the U.S. mission would continue, with the focus on training and the campaign against ISIS.
• Mnuchin said INSTEX could face secondary sanctions, a Swiss channel remains for humanitarian trade, and the China phase one deal is expected to be signed next week.

Chapters

1. 0:00Mnuchin announces new sanctions on Iran
2. 2:23Pompeo on targets and the sanctions campaign
3. 4:34Questions on the imminent threat and Iran's missile attack
4. 6:51Ukrainian airliner and the effect of sanctions
5. 9:50INSTEX, European allies and defining imminent
6. 11:36Intelligence credibility and U.S. troops in Iraq
7. 14:30Congress briefings and the terrorism threat after Soleimani
8. 16:08China trade deal and Iranian oil

Full transcript

0:00Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here today. I'd just like to make a brief comment before we talk about Iran's sanctions. The President's economic plans are clearly working. We're looking forward to the China signing USMCA and a very strong economy this year. As previously announced by the President, we are announcing additional sanctions against the Iranian regime as a result of the attack on U.S.

0:30and allied troops. First, the President is issuing an executive order authorizing the imposition of additional sanctions against any individual owning, operating, trading with, or assisting sectors of the Iranian economy, including construction, manufacturing, textiles, and mining. And let me be clear, these will be both primary and secondary sanctions. The EO also allows us to designate other sectors in the future, as Secretary Pompeo and me think is appropriate. Second, we are announcing 17 specific sanctions against Iran's largest steel and iron manufacturers.

1:15Set three Seychelles base entities and a vessel involved in the transfer of products. As a result of these actions, we will cut off billions of dollars of support to the Iranian regime and we will continue our enforcement of other entities. Third, we are taking action against eight senior Iranian officials who advanced the regime's destabilizing activity and were involved in Tuesday's ballistic missile strike. will comment more on this.

1:47Today's sanctions are part of our commitment to stop the Iranian regime's global terrorist activities. The President has been very clear. We will continue to apply economic sanctions until Iran stops its terrorist activities and commit that it will never have nuclear weapons. I'll now turn it over to Secretary Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Pompeo, President Today, President Trump is delivering on the pledge that he made.

2:23The day after Iran attacked American forces in Iraq, there will be a series of new sanctions. Secretary Mnuchin just mentioned eight senior Iranian officials that are responsible for the regime's violence both at home and abroad. We're striking at the heart of the Islamic Republic's inner security apparatus. These sanctioned targets include the secretary of the Supreme National Council and the commander of the Basij forces. That's the regime's brute squad, which has in the last few months killed approximately 1,500 Iranians who were simply demanding freedom.

2:57Our action also targets other senior leaders close to the Ayatollah. They've carried out his terrorist plots and destabilizing campaigns across the Middle East and around the world. They've employed soldiers across the region's battlefields. They've trained militias in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere in the arts of domestic repression. Today, they're accountable for murder and mayhem. The goal of our campaign is to deny the regime the resource to conduct its destructive foreign policy. We want Iran to simply behave like a normal nation.

3:31We believe the sanctions that we impose today further that strategic objective. Our campaign is composed of diplomatic, economic components that have deprived the regime of billions in revenue the regime has used to fuel death and destruction across the Middle East and all across the world. Sadly, the previous administration had opened up revenue streams for Iran. But under our administration, oil revenues are down by 80 percent, and Iran cannot access roughly 90 percent of its foreign currency reserves.

4:03And not even two weeks ago, President Rouhani of Iran admitted that our sanctions have cost Iran over $200 billion and lost foreign income and investment. As long as Iran's outlaw's ways continue, we will continue to impose sanctions. Finally, I want to reiterate President Trump's concern for Americans and dual national citizens detained inside of Iran. Iran knows that these individuals have committed no crime. They know the charges against them are fake. We will do all that we can to get each of them returned home safely to their families.

4:34With that, we'll take just a few questions. Yes, ma'am. The Pressure Secretary, the administration said this strike was done based on an imminent threat. But this morning, you said, we didn't know precisely when and we didn't know precisely where. That's not the definition of imminent. The President has also suggested that there was some sort of attack being planned against an embassy, perhaps several embassies. Can you clarify, did you have specific information about an imminent threat, and did it have anything to do with our embassies? We had specific information on an imminent threat, and that was threat stream included attacks on U.S. embassies. Period. Full stop.

5:12So you were mistaken when you said you didn't know precisely when, and you didn't know precisely where? Nope. Completely true. Those are completely consistent thoughts. I don't know exactly which minute. We don't know exactly which day it would have been executed, but it was very clear. Qasem Soleimani himself was plotting a broad, large-scale attack against American interests, and those attacks were imminent. against American facilities, including American embassies, military bases, American facilities throughout the region. Mr. Secretary, in the initial hours after the missile attacks on al-Assad and Erbil, it was believed that Iran may have taken steps to avoid U.S. casualties. But then the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, came out, the Secretary of Defense came out, other officials came out to say, no, these missiles were intended to kill Americans. If it was Iran's intent to kill Americans, does that not deserve some sort of response? I mean, if somebody takes a shot at you and they don't hit you simply because you duck, does that mean that they weren't trying to kill you?

6:17So, look, I'll defer to the Department of Defense on the details, but there's no doubt, in my judgment, as I observed, the Iranian activity in the region that night, they had the full intention of killing U.S. forces, whether that was our military folks or diplomatic folks who were in the region. And I am confident that the response the President had taken is appropriate. The President has said, we don't want war. We want Iran to behave like a normal nation. The reason that the Secretary, Treasury and I are here this morning is to continue this campaign, our strategic effort to get Iran to behave in a way that doesn't continue their 40-year-long effort to terrorize the world.

6:51The Press, Mr. Secretary Pompeo, do you believe that the Iranians shot down the Ukrainian International Airways plane? And if the Iranians shot that plane down, will there be consequences? Mr. We do believe that it's likely that that plane was shot down by an Iranian missile. We're going to let the investigation play out before we make a final determination. It's important that we get to the bottom of it. I've been on the phone. I was on the phone with President Zelensky. Just before I came here, I was on the phone with my Canadian counterpart.

7:25They were working to get their resources on the ground. To conduct that thorough investigation, we'll learn more about what happened to that aircraft. And when we get the results of that investigation, I am confident we and the world will take appropriate actions in response. The Press. waivers for anybody, whether it's Americans or others, that can help facilitate the investigation. The Press, last time that you both joined us in this room, it was back in September.

7:59You were announcing additional sanctions, including on the Chris force. And Secretary Mnuchin, at that point, you said, I think we've done more sanctions on Iran than anybody, and it's absolutely working. Since then, we've seen an escalation in violence from Iran, shooting down the drone, attacking the embassy, contractor who has killed U.S. troops that were wounded. How are sanctions keeping the United States, economic sanctions, keeping the United States, United States interests more secure? Mr. I think we have 100 percent confidence and we are consistent in our view that the economic sanctions are working, that if we didn't have these sanctions in place, literally Iran would have tens of billions of dollars. They would be using that for terrorist activities throughout the region and to enable them to do more bad things.

8:50And there's no question, by cutting off the economics to the regime, we are having an impact. And as the President has said, the fact that the Obama administration turned over $150 billion to the regime, we think we wouldn't be in this situation had that not been the case. The Press, may I just add, it's important to keep in mind what's taking place in Iran today. This country has never been in the place that it is today. Big, challenging problems.

9:20Their budget, they're going to fail by tens of billions of dollars achieving their revenue for this year. They've got real challenges in figuring out how to make difficult decisions. Do you underwrite Hezbollah? Do you pick Hamas? Do you underwrite the Shia militias in Iraq? Or do you allow your people to have the opportunity to live the lives they want and grow your economy? Those are the difficult choices that the regime is facing. You can see the protests, protests that we expect will continue, that will demand from the Iranian regime that they begin to treat the Iranian people in the way that they so richly deserve.

9:50And this administration will continue to support those efforts as well. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. You mentioned secondary sanctions here. What is your message to our European allies who continue to do business with the Iranians? And then specifically, if you can, will this impact the INSTEX barter mechanism which was set up by a number of European countries to avoid U.S. sanctions and continue to do business. Without using the U.S. dollar. The President's I don't believe there's been any INSTEX transactions, as we've made clear, we are working on a Swiss channel that we have approved for humanitarian transactions. We'll continue to allow humanitarian transactions. We've warned INSTEX and others that they will most likely be subject to secondary sanctions, depending on how they use that. So that's absolutely the case.

10:46As it relates to the Europeans, both the Secretary and I have spoken to our counterparts in Europe several times over the last few days. We've emphasized the impact and the issue of Iran has announced that they are no longer part of the JCPOA, and we've had very direct conversations with our counterparts about that. The Press, Secretary Pompeo, what is your definition of imminent? this was gonna happen and American lives were at risk and we would have been culpably negligent as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said we would have been culpably negligent and we not recommended the president that he take this action in Qasem Soleimani He made the right call, and America is safer as a result of that.

11:36Secretary Pompeo, why have you been in these shifting deficits? Go ahead. We're going to try to do one question for everybody, just so that as many people can get questions. So I don't mean to cut you off, but we're trying to go ahead. I mean, I only differ to my colleague, but sir, six months ago, Secretary Pompeo, the President said that U.S. intelligence agencies had been running amok. He spent most of the past three years, he's been in office denigrating and attacking the intelligence community and disputing findings, whether it's on Russia or North Korea, or really any area that contradicts things that he has said publicly. Why then should Americans suddenly believe your assertions that you had good intelligence on this when the head of the executive branch has been casting aspersions on the intelligence community for most of his time in office?

12:32Look, I served as the CIA director for the first year and a half of this administration. I watched the President rely on the work that the intelligence community did for the entire time I served as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. I've watched him rely on the capable men and women who are delivering exquisite information to the executive branch. I watched the President have confidence in that information. We all challenge their work. We have to make sure we get it right. The intelligence community is not flawless. We get it wrong. In this case, the intelligence community got it fundamentally right. Even the reflections we've seen after the effect, after the strike that Qasem Soleimani took, has demonstrated that we were quite right. There was an imminent attack, there was active plotting, and we took an action that we thought was likely to create less risk for the American people, and I'm confident that we did that. Go ahead, in the back. In the back, thank you.

13:22The Press, thank you. This question is for Secretary Pompeo. There are reports that the Iraqi Prime Minister has asked you to start negotiating the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq immediately. Is that the case? Can you comment on that? The President, he didn't quite characterize the conversation correctly. But, to the larger, more important point, we are happy to continue the conversation with the Iraqis about what the right structure is. Our mission set there is very clear. We've been there to perform a training mission to help the Iraqi security forces be successful, and to continue the campaign against ISIS, to continue the counter-Daesh campaign.

13:57We're going to continue that mission, but as times change and we get to a place where we can deliver upon what I believe and the President believes is our right structure. With fewer resources dedicated to that mission, we will do so. We also have today a NATO team that's here at the State Department working to develop a plan which will get burden-sharing right in the region as well, so that we can continue the important missions to protect and defend and keep the American people safe while reducing our cost, our resources, and our burden and the risk to our soldiers and sailors who are in the region.

14:30Secretary Pompeo, if I can, here today at the podium, You said that the imminent threat was a threat to U.S. embassies. You didn't know precisely when or where. Last night, the President said it was a threat to embassies, including to our Baghdad embassy. Why can you say that here? And the President could say it at a rally in Toledo, but no one said it to lawmakers behind closed doors in a classified setting, as multiple senators have since said? Mr. We did. The Pressure You said so the senators are lying when they say that the imminent threat was a threat? Mr. We told them about the imminent threat. All of the intelligence that we've breathed, that you've heard today, I assure you, in an unclassified setting.

15:05We provide in the classified setting as well. To be clear, you told them that embassies were the sort, were to be targeted. That was the imminent threat. I'm not going to talk about the details of what we shared in the classified setting, but make no mistake about it. Those leaders, those members of Congress who want to go access this same intelligence can see that very same intelligence that will reflect. Well, I described to you what the President said last night as well. The Press is that right now gone with Soleimani? Gone? The President's threats are never gone, right? It's always a lot of danger in the world. The President's always a lot of danger in the world throughout the region.

15:37Nobody believed that a single mission in any respect took down the risk of terror, terror from al Qaeda, terror from ISIS, terror from al-Shabaab. No, no one believes that. The President doesn't. Look at the list, though. Look at the achievements in the administration. We took away the caliphate in its entirety. We took down Hamza bin Laden. We took down al-Maghdadi, we took down Qasem Soleimani. This is a list that has reduced the capacity for terrorists around the world to perform the functions that put American men and women and the homeland at risk. We're very proud of what we accomplished. We're going to stay the course.

16:08Why don't we take one more over there? Yes, thank you. I'm curious. No, no, next to you. Right there, yes. The Press about the China trade deal. So the Chinese side is going to be here next Wednesday to sign the phase one part of that deal. But China is also a big importer of Iranian oil and Iranian minerals, and that's a big part of their economy as well. So how do you balance the two? And are you concerned about the Iran issue coming up in either the signing of the phase one deal or the negotiation for the phase two deal? Well, let me just comment. I had no idea you'd ask that question, but that's a good last question to end on. So let me first say that we are looking forward to the Chinese delegation coming next week. Phase one is very significant. It includes very significant components of changes to technology issues, intellectual property issues, and $50 billion of purchases for our farmers. I would comment. I don't agree with your comment that China is a big buyer of oil.

17:06The China state companies are not buying oil from Iran, and I would just say we are having conversations with China, as well as with any other counterparty on sanctions evasion. So, thank you very much. Thank you, everybody.

Source and licence

Recording: File:Press Briefing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin January 10 2020.webm by White House (2020-01-10), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.