From the Oval Office Monday morning, President Trump signed new sanctions against Iran's leading terrorists and vowed the regime cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.
"We will continue to increase pressure on Tehran,” President Trump said, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence. “Never can Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
"I’ll be signing an executive order imposing hard hitting sanctions on the Supreme Leader of Iran and the office of the Supreme Leader of Iran and many others," he continued. “Today’s action follows a series of aggressive behaviors by the Iranian regime in recent weeks including shooting down of U.S. drones."
Asked if the new sanctions on Iran were a response to the drone shootdown, he said "you could problaby add that into this” but added, “Ttis was something that was going to happen anyway.” pic.twitter.com/WWOMXscbPm
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 24, 2019
President Trump also warned that the United States has shown restraint after Iran shot down a $180 million U.S. Navy surveillance drone over international waters last week and that the regime shouldn't expect the same in the future.
"We do not seek conflict with Iran or any other country,” he continued. “I think a lot of restraint has been shown by us and that doesn’t mean we’re going to show it in the future."
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the Middle East today meeting with leaders from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. White House National Security Advisor John Bolton spent the weekend in Israel.
Great meetings today with Israeli PM @Netanyahu and NSA Meir Ben-Shabbat. We re-affirmed our shared priority of confronting Iranian aggression throughout the region by continuing maximum economic pressure and increasing the cost of Iran’s malign activity. pic.twitter.com/paeFiwB6ah
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) June 23, 2019
This post has been updated with additional information