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QUESTION: Secretary, I want to move on to Iran because now we understand that Beijing is set to be in the final stages of approving a $400 billion economic and security deal with Tehran. In addition to the massive infrastructure investments, Forbes is reporting that this agreement is closer cooperation on defense and intelligence sharing. What are the implications, Secretary?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, it shouldn’t surprise you that regimes that don’t respect freedom at home and foment national security problems abroad would want to join hands. We will be sure to enforce all the provisions we have, all the sanctions we have on the Islamic Republic of Iran, applied to the Chinese Communist Party and their businesses and state-owned enterprises as well.

And I think countries in the Middle East should see this for what it is as well. China’s entry into Iran will destabilize the Middle East. It’ll put Israel at risk. It’ll put the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates at risk as well. Iran remains the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, and to have access to weapons systems and commerce and money flowing from the Chinese Communist Party only compounds that risk for that region.

QUESTION: Should we expect new sanctions against Iran?

SECRETARY POMPEO: So we filed some new sanctions just this Friday. We expanded their – sanctions on their metals programs. And then in October we have a significant provision of the JCPOA that expires, the first major provision to expire. It’ll allow the Chinese and the Russians to sell weapons systems to Iran and then allow Iran to sell those weapons systems and other arms around the world as well.

The United States has been working since 2018 to try and stop this provision from expiring and in the United Nations in just the next handful of days will present a Security Council resolution aimed at doing just that. I hope the whole world can understand that allowing Iran to buy and sell weapons is really, really dangerous.

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