White House Unveils New Strategy for Iran

"The reckless behavior of the Iranian regime, and the IRGC in particular, poses one of the most dangerous threats to the interests of the United States and to regional stability,” the White House said in a statement on Friday, released ahead of Trump’s planned speech.

The statement, which did not reveal Trump’s decision, denounced the Obama administration for its "myopic focus on Iran’s nuclear program to the exclusion of the regime’s many other malign activities” and said the same "mistakes” would not be repeated, AP reported.

"The Trump administration’s Iran policy will address the totality of these threats from and malign activities by the Government of Iran and will seek to bring about a change in the Iranian’s regime’s behavior,” it added.

"We will work to deny the Iranian regime — and especially the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — funding for its malign activities, and oppose IRGC activities that extort the wealth of the Iranian people," the White House said. "We will rally the international community to condemn the IRGC's gross violations of human rights and its unjust detention of American citizens and other foreigners on specious charges."

"Most importantly, we will deny the Iranian regime all paths to a nuclear weapon," it added.

In mid-September, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei lambasted the US for violating the JCPOA, warning that any "wrong move” concerning the nuclear deal would draw reaction from Iran.

Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) reached the 159-page nuclear agreement in July 2015 and started to implement it in January 2016.

Since the historic deal was signed in Vienna, the IAEA has repeatedly confirmed the Islamic Republic’s compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, but some other parties, especially the US, have failed to live up to their undertakings.

Meanwhile, in comments on Sunday, IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said if speculations about the US administration’s "stupid decision” to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization are true, the IRGC will in turn treat the US military around the world, particularly in the Middle East, as Daesh (ISIL) forces.