Tillerson says US sanctions targeting Iran’s ‘malign behaviors’

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says that US sanctions against Iran are targeting the country’s “malign behaviors” and are aimed at helping the Iranian people take control of their government.

Tillerson tells a New Delhi press conference after talks with India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj that the US would not block “legitimate” business activities with Iran by India or any other ally.

He says US actions also sought to limit Iran’s other “destabilizing activities” in the Middle East, including its ballistic missile development, “their export of arms to terrorist organizations” and involvement in conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

“Our fight is not with the Iranian people. Our disagreements are with the revolutionary regime,” Tillerson says. “We are taking actions to impose sanctions on the regime and in particular the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. It is our objective to deny financing capacity and to disrupt the activities related to these malign behaviors.”

— AFP