On Monday, the new Secretary of State for the United States, Mike Pompeo, has laid out a clear and uncompromising framework for Iran after Washington bravely said it would withdraw from the 2015 international agreement to end sanctions on Tehran. Pompeo made it clear that the US administration is determined to ensure that the regime in Tehran will neither have the means nor the intent to be able to pursue its hegemonic policies towards other nations in the region.

Pompeo laid out a vision of a bold policy that will end Iran’s abilities to pursue its ballistic missile programme, one whose technology and weaponry have been exported willingly to Al Houthi rebels in Yemen, and rockets that are launched with alarming regularity on the civilian population of Saudi Arabia.

The tough and targeted sanctions will ensure that Iran will have no option but to shrink its sphere of influence as it meddles from the Bab Al Mandab to the Mediterranean.

Simply put, the sanctions will force the regime in Tehran either to nurture its domestic economy under strict conditions or continue to support its militias and proxies across the region to its detriment domestically.

Sanctions have kept Iran in check before and these new measures outlined by the US secretary of state will do so again. And yes, they are necessary — despite what those who remain committed to the international accord might like to think, for they have made a deal with a dishonest regime.

At the same time, even as Tehran was signing this deeply-flawed deal, it was arming militias to the teeth, exporting its missiles and mines, and meddling between Beirut and the Bab Al Mandab, backing Bashar Al Assad in Syria and handing out missiles to Al Houthis. Any new nuclear deal to include the US will be far tougher.

It’s time the broader international community sees the regime for what it is — a meddling menace with a singular sectarian agenda at its heart.

Across the broader region, it has proved to be a destabilising force, one that spreads sedition and rebellion, turning our Arab brothers against each other as Tehran seeks to reap benefits and influence from the turmoil. Across the Gulf too, its agents and Revolutionary Guard are at work, supporting and training terrorists, fostering unrest and tensions.

Be under no illusion — there will never be peace until Iran is fully contained. And these American measures are a good first step.