Washington's approach to agreements abnormal

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said over the weekend that the United States is set to revive sanctions on Iran that were previously lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal reached between the Middle East country and the so-called P5+1 group of powers.

Speaking on Sunday on his way home from a three-nation trip to South East Asia, Pompeo told reporters on the plane that the US administration is ready to reimpose the sanctions and that they will be rigorously enforced until the Iranian government radically changes course.

Using the now familiar rhetorical tropes of the Donald Trump administration, he said that they were hopeful they could find a way forward "but it's going to require enormous change on the part of the Iranian regime". Which he helpfully spelled out as meaning - "They've got to behave like a normal country."