mr. mnuchin: against iran's largest steel and iron manufacturers, set three entities and a vessel involved in the transfer of products. as a result of these actions, we will cut off billions of dollars of support to the iranian regime and we will continue our enforcement of other entities. third, we are taking action against eight senior iranian officials who advanced the regime's destabilizing activity and were involved in tuesday's ballistic missile strike. secretary pompeo will comment more on this. today's sanctions are part of our commitment to stop the iranian regime's global terrorist activities. the president has been very

clear. we will continue to apply economic sanctions until iran stops its terrorist activities and commit that it will never have nuclear weapons. i now turn it over to secretary ompeo. mr. pompeo: thank you, steven. good morning, everyone. today president trump is delivering on the pledge that he made, the day after iran attacked american forces in iraq, there will be a series of new sanctions. secretary mnuchin just mentioned eight senior iranian officials that are responsible for the regime's violence both at home and abroad were striking at the heart of the islamic republic's inner security apparatus. these sanctions targets include the secretary of the supreme national council and a commander of the forces. that's the regime's brute squad, which has in the last few months killed approximately 1,500 irans a were -- iranians

who were simply demanding freedom. our action also targets other senior leaders close to the ayatollah. they've carried out his terrorist plots around the world. they've employed soldiers across the region's battlefields. they've trained militias in iraq, syria and elsewhere in the arts of domestic repression. today they're accountable for both murder and mayhem. the goal of our campaign is to deny the regime the resources to conduct its destructive foreign policy. we want iran to simply behave like a normal nation. we believe the sanctions that we impose today further that strategic objective. our campaign is composed of diplomatic, economic components that have deprived the regime of billions in revenue that the regime has used to fuel death and destruction across the middle east and all across it's the world. sadly, the previous administration had opened up revenue streams for iran. but under our administration, oil revenues are down by 80%

and iran cannot access roughly 90% of its foreign currency revs. not even two weeks ago president rouhani of iran admitted our sanctions have cost iran over $200 billion in lost foreign income and investment. as long as iran's outlaws ways continue, we'll continue to impose sanctions. finally, i want to reiterate president trump's concerns for americans detained inside of iran. iran knows these individuals have committed no crime. they know the charges against them are fake. we will do all we can to get each of them returned home safely to their families. with that, we'll take a few questions. reporter: the administration said this strike was done based on imminent threat. but this morning you said we didn't know precisely when and we didn't know precisely where. that's not the definition of imminent. the president has also suggested that there was some sort of attack being planned against an embassy, perhaps several. can you clarify, did you have

specific information about an imminent threat and did you have anything to do with our embassies? mr. pompeo: we had specific information on an imminent threat and that included attacks on u.s. embassies. period. full stop. reporter: so you were mistaken when you said you didn't know precisely when and where? mr. pompeo: those are consistent thoughts. i don't know which minute. we don't know which day it would have been excused but -- executed but it was very clear. soleimani himself was plot plotting a large broad scale attack against american interests and those attacks were imminent. reporter: against an embassy? mr. pompeo: american facilities, military bases, facilities throughout the region. reporter: mr. secretary, in the initial hours after the missile attacks on al-assad in erbil, it was believed that iran may have taken steps to avoid u.s. casualties. but then the chairman of the joint chiefs came out,

secretary of defense came out, other officials said, no, these missiles were intended to kill americans. if it was iran's intent to kill americans, does that not deserve some sort of response? if somebody takes a shot at you and they don't hit you simply because you duck, does that mean that they weren't trying to kill you? mr. pompeo: so, i'll refer to the department of defense on details. there's no doubt in my judgment as i observed the iranian activity in the region that night, they had the full intention of killing u.s. forces. whether that was our military folks or diplomatic folks who were in the region. and i'm confident that the response the president has taken is appropriate. the president said we don't want war. we want iran to be to behave like a normal nation. the reason that the secretary and i are here this morning is to continue our campaign, this strategic effort to get to iran to behave in a way that doesn't continue their 40-year-long effort to terrorize the world. reporter: mr. secretary, secretary pompeo, do you believe that the iranians shot

down the ukrainian international airways plane and if the iranians shot that plane down, will there be consequences? mr. pompeo: we believe it's likely it was shot down by an iranian missile. we'll let the investigation play out before we make a vital determination. it's important we get to the bottom of it. i've been on the phone, i was on the phone with president zelensky just before i came here. i was on the phone with my canadian counterpart. they were working together their resources on the ground -- to get their resources on the ground to conduct that thorough investigation. we'll learn more about what happened to that aircraft and when we get the results of that investigation, i am confident we and the world will take appropriate actions in response. reporter: will you allow the ntsb to work with the iranians? mr. pompeo: i was just going comment on that. mr. money clinch: the treasury will -- mr. mnuchin: the treasury will work with anyone who will help facilitate the investigation.

reporter: last time you joined us in the room, secretary mnuchin, at that point you said, i think we've done more sanctions on iran than anybody and it's absolutely working. since then we've seen an escalation in violence from iran, shooting down the drone, attacking the embassy, contractor who was killed, u.s. troops that were wounded. how are sanctions keeping the united states, economic sanctions, keeping the united states and united states interests more secure? mr. mnuchin: i think we have 100% confidence and we're consistent in our view that the economic sanctions are working. that if we didn't have these sanctions in place, literally iran would have tens of billions of dollars. they would be using that for terrorist activities throughout the region and to enable them to do more bad things and there's no question, by cutting off the economics to the regime , we are having an impact.

as the president has said, the fact that the obama administration turned over $150 billion to the regime, we think we wouldn't be in this situation had that not been the case. mr. pompeo: may i just add, it's important to keep in mind what's taking place in iran today. they have real challenges in figuring out how to make difficult decisions. do you underwrite hezbollah, do you pick hamas? do you underwrite the shi'a militias in iraq or do you allow your people to have the opportunity to live the life they want and grow your economy? those are the difficult choices that the regime is facing. you can see the protests. protests that we expect will continue. that will demand from the iranian regime that they begin to treat the iranian people in the way that they so richly deserve and this administration will continue to support those efforts as well. in the back. reporter: thank you, mr.

secretary. you mentioned secondary sanctions here. what is your message to our european allies who continue to do business with the iranians, and specifically, if you can, will this impact the barter mechanism that was set up by a number of european countries to avoid u.s. sanctions and continue to do business without using the u.s. dollars? mr. pompeo: sure, thank you. mr. mnuchin: i think those are both important questions. i don't believe there's been any transactions. as we've made clear, we are working on a swiss channel that we have approved for humanitarian transactions. we'll continue to allow humanitarian transactions. we've warned others that they will most likely be subject to secondary sanctions, depending on how they use that. so that's absolutely the case. as it relates to the europeans, both the secretary and i have spoken to our counterparts in europe several times over the last few days. we've emphasized the impact and

the issue of iran has announced that they are no longer part of the jcpoa. and we've had very direct conversations with our counterparts about that. reporter: what is your definition of imminent? mr. pompeo: this was going to happen. and american lives were at risk. nd we would have been culpable -- culpably negligent had we not recommended that the president take this action against sewell manny. he made the right call -- soleimani. he made the right call and america is safer because of that. [talking simultaneously] reporter: [indiscernible] mr. mnuchin: we're going to do one question for everybody so as many people can get questions. i don't mean to cut you off. but we're trying to -- go ahead. reporter: six months ago, secretary pompeo, the president

said that u.s. intelligence agencies had been running amok. he spent most of the past three years he's been in office denigrating and attacking the intelligence community and disputing findings, whether it's on russia or north korea, or really any area that contradicts things that he has -- [indiscernible] -- why then should americans suddenly believe your assertions that you had good intelligence on this when the head of the executive branch has been casting aspersions on the intelligence community for most of his time? office? -- of his time in office? mr. pompeo: i served as the c.i.a. director for the first year and a half of this administration. i watched the president rely on the work that the intelligence committee did for the entire time i served as the head of the central intelligence agency. i watched him rely on the capable men and women who are delivering exquisite information to the executive branch. i watched the president have confidence in that information. we all challenge their work, we have to make sure we get it right. the intelligence community is not flaw ms.

-- flawless. we get it wrong. in this characters the intelligence community got it fundamentally right. even the reflections we've seen after the strikes has demonstrated that we were quite right. there was an imminent attack, there was active plotting and we took an action that we thought was likely to create less risk for the american people and i'm confident that we did that. in the back. reporter: thank you. this question is for secretary pompeo. there are reports that the iraqi prime minister has asked you to start negotiating the withdrawal of u.s. troops from iraq immediately. is that the case? can you comment on that? mr. pompeo: he didn't characterize the conversation correctly. to the larger, more important point. we are happy to continue the conversation with the iraqis about what the right structure is. our mission set is very clear. we've been there to perform a training mission to help the iraqi security forces be successful and to continue the campaign against isis. to continue the counter-daiish

campaign. we're going to continue that mission but as times change and we get to a place where we can deliver upon what i believe and the president believes is our right structure, with fewer resources dedicated to that mission, we will do so. we also have, today, nato team that's here at the state department working to develop a plan which will get burden sharing right in the region as well. so we can continue the important missions to protect and defend and keep the american people safe while reducing our costs, our resources and our burden and the risk to our soldiers and sailors who are in the region. reporter: here today at the podium you said the imminent threat was a threat to u.s. embassies. you didn't know when or where. last night the president said it was a threat to embassies, including to our baghdad embassy. why can you say that here and the president could say that at a rally in toledo but no one said it to lawmakers behind closed doors in a classified setting as multiple senators have said? mr. pompeo: we did. reporter: so the senators are

lying? mr. pompeo: we told them about the imminent threat. all of the intelligence that you've heard today i assure you, in an unclassified setting, we provide in the classified setting as well. reporter: to be clear, you told them embassies were to be targeted, that was the imminent threat? mr. pompeo: i'm not going to talk about the details of what we shared in a classified setting but those leaders, those members of congress who want to access this same intelligence can see that very same intelligence that will reflect what i described to you and what the president said. reporter: is that threat gone with soleimani gone? mr. pompeo: threats are never gone. right? always a low lot of danger in the world. always a lot of danger in the world throughout the region. nobody believed that a single mission in any respect took down the risk of terror.

we're going to stay the course. why don't we take one more. yes? reporter: about the china trade deal. the chinese side is going to be here next wednesday to sign the part of that deal. china is also a big imof iranian oil and minerals and that's a big part of their economy. so are you concerned about the iran issue coming up in either the signing of the phase one deal, or the negotiations for he phase two deal? important mr. pompeo: that's a good last question to end on. we are looking forward to the chinese delegation coming next week. phase one is very significant. it includes very significant components of changes to technology issues, intellectual property issues, and $50

llion of purchases for our farmers. i don't agree with your comment that china is a big buyer of oil. the china state companies are not buying oil from iran and i would just say we are having conversations with china, as well with any other counterparty on sanctions. thank you very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020]