Pompeo urges allies to cut off funding to Iran

BRUSSELS: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on American allies on Thursday to help impose economic pressure on Iran, and accused Tehran of continuing to sell weapons in the Middle East despite United Nations resolutions.

"We must cut off all funding the regime uses to fund terrorism and proxy wars," Pompeo said in a Twitter post ahead of a scheduled meeting with the European Union´s foreign affairs and security policy representative, Federica Mogherini, in Brussels.

In May, the United States pulled out of a multinational deal that lifted many sanctions against Iran in return for curbs to its nuclear programme. Washington has since told countries they must halt all imports of Iranian oil from Nov. 4 or face US financial measures, with no exemptions. Since President Donald Trump´s decision to withdraw from the agreement, European states have been scrambling to ensure Iran gets enough economic benefits to persuade it to maintain the nuclear curbs required in the deal.

But so far it has proven difficult to offset the impact of US sanctions, with European firms reluctant to risk far-reaching US financial penalties to do business in Iran. Pompeo, who has been attending a Nato summit in Brussels flew in from Abu Dhabi, where he discussed Iran with leaders of the United Arab Emirates.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump was asked at a Nato news conference about rising tensions with Iran and replied:"I would say there might be an escalation between us and the Iranians.