Romney Threatens Iran With Pressure

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has threatened to impose new sanctions against Iran if he wins the US election.

“I will not hesitate to impose new sanctions on Iran and will tighten the sanctions we currently have,” Romney said in an address at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington on Monday.

He added that he would restore the permanent presence of US aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf.

The comments come as US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned on Saturday that more sanctions would be imposed against Iran.

At the beginning of 2012, the US and the EU approved new sanctions against Iran’s oil and financial sectors. The embargoes aim to prevent other countries from purchasing Iranian oil or transacting with the Central Bank of Iran.

Washington and the EU have declared that the bans are meant to force Iran to abandon its nuclear energy program, which they claim includes a military component.

Iran has vehemently refuted the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful objectives.

Presstv