Trump administration offering $15M for information disrupting finances of Iran's guard
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus on the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran.
The State Department is offering $15 million in reward money for information on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) illicit financial networks and oil sector.
The new measure is part of the department’s Rewards for Justice Program, which coincides with the Treasury Department’s latest sanctions on an oil shipping network with ties to Iran’s guards.
“This is a part, overall, of a maximum pressure campaign that we have put on the Iranian regime over the last year since the president withdrew from the JCPOA,” State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said exclusively on FOX Business’ “Bulls & Bears” Wednesday.
“I think the president has certainly signaled that he is not looking for another war in the Middle East. He’s not looking to go to war with Iran.”
The Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is an agreement between China France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States reached in July 2015. Under the deal, Iran agreed to rollback its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium and cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%.
President Trump terminated the United States' participation in the JCPOA in May of this year for failure to protect America’s national security interests.
Ortagus, a former Fox News contributor, said the deal was fundamentally flawed and has led Iran toward a path to nuclear weapons.
“It allowed the Iranian regime to get palates of cash that would further ferment terror in the region and there hasn’t been no curbing of their illicit behavior since the deal or even after we withdrew,” she said in her first U.S. interview since taking her current post at the State Department.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday he is opened to dialogue talks with Iran President Hassan Rouhani at the United General Assembly meeting in a few weeks.
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Ortagus added Trump will keep the diplomatic channels open with Iran but will continue to pressure the Iranian regime with U.S. sanctions.
“I think the president has certainly signaled that he is not looking for another war in the Middle East. He’s not looking to go to war with Iran,” she said.