WASHINGTON — A senior Trump administration official said today that new US Iran sanctions designations targeting Iranians alleged to have been involved in sensitive defense research are part of a broader pressure campaign it hopes will eventually persuade Iran to come back to the negotiating table.
“For the last few months we have been going to a great deal of trouble to reimpose pressures upon Iran … in order to try to incentivize Iran making the right choice and in coming back to the table to ultimately agree to the kind of enduring and better, more comprehensive settlement,” a senior US administration official, speaking not for attribution, told journalists on a call hosted by the State and Treasury departments today.