Washington to ramp up pressure on Tehran

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the United States would increase economic pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, making the pledge during a Middle East trip that includes visits to U.S. allies Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Mnuchin, speaking in Jerusalem to reporters alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who urged him to crank up pressure on Iran, offered no details on what new moves were in store.

"We have executed on a maximum pressure campaign for sanctions. They have worked, they are working, they are cutting off the money," Reuters cited the U.S. Treasury Secretary as saying.

"We will continue to ramp up, more, more, more," he told Netanyahu. "I just came from a very productive working lunch with your team. They gave us a bunch of very specific ideas that we will be following up," Mnuchin added.