“Maximum pressure” against Iran: Mnuchin

The United State is still pursuing a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC yesterday, days after US President Donald Trump’s hard-line national security adviser left the White House. Mnuchin, in an interview on CNBC, also said that as of now there is no plan for Trump to meet with Iran President Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month, although he reiterated that Trump was open to meeting Rouhani with no preconditions Trump said Bolton had made mistakes, including offending North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un by demanding that he follow a “Libyan model” and hand over all his nuclear weapons.

“We were set back very badly when John Bolton talked about the Libyan model ... what a disaster,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “He’s using that to make a deal with North Korea? And I don’t blame Kim Jong Un for what he said after that, and he wanted nothing to do with John Bolton. And that’s not a question of being tough. That’s a question of being not smart to say something like that.” Trump also said he disagreed with Bolton on Venezuela but offered no specifics. “I thought he was way out of line and I think I’ve proven to be right,” the president said.

Treat detainees ‘humanely’

Meanwhile, Australia yesterday called on Tehran to treat “humanely” three citizens detained in Iran, as it emerged two of those arrested were a travel-blogging couple on an overland trip to Britain. News of the arrests came after Australia announced it would contribute a frigate and surveillance aircraft to a US-led mission to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with tensions high in the Gulf region.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said she had raised the cases “many times” with her Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, including as recently as last week. “The government has been making efforts to ensure they are treated fairly, humanely and in accordance with international norms,” she said, adding that there was “no reason” to believe the arrests were politically motivated.