US ramping up sanctions on Iran with 'specific' Israeli ideas: Mnuchin
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says Israelis are providing "specific ideas" on how to ramp up pressure on Iran as he insisted that Washington's economic measures against the country, which began last year when Washington pulled out of an international agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, have worked.
While on a visit to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories on Monday, Mnuchin said that the Israelis were helping the US how it could make the sanctions on Iran made effective.
“We will continue to ramp up (sanctions), more, more, more ... I just came from a very productive working lunch with your team. They gave us a bunch of very specific ideas that we will be following up,” said Mnuchin while speaking along Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.
Netanyahu, clearly flattered by the remarks, thanked the US government for its anti-Iran policies and said the regime in Tel Aviv wanted to see more pressure piled up on Iran.
“So I want to thank you for what you’ve been doing and encourage you, Steve, to do more - more, a lot more,” said the Israeli prime minister.
Mnuchin claimed that sanctions imposed on Iran had been working despite numerous assertions that Washington and allies have failed to reach their objectives from pressuring Iran economically.
“We have executed on a maximum pressure campaign for sanctions. They have worked, they are working, they are cutting off the money,” Mnuchin said.
The comments came despite reports suggesting that US sanctions have failed to impact Iran’s economy in its entirety while major economic organizations around the world have predicted that Iran would emerge of a crisis caused by the sanctions next year.
Jihad Azour, a regional director at the International Monetary Fund, said on Monday that US sanctions would stop impacting Iran’s economy next year, insisting that Iran would not experience any extra pressure from the US sanctions two years after they were re-imposed.
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