Press TV - The Donald Trump administration’s re-imposition of tough economic sanctions against Iran is an effort by the Zionist Jews to bring about an "uprising" against the Islamic Republic, according to an American scholar and political analyst.

“This is an outrageous use of economic power to bring about misery in the population in the hope that it will bring about some type of uprising,” said E. Michael Jones, a writer, former professor and the current editor of the Culture Wars magazine.

“It’s not going to happen. In general, the opposite happens,” he said in an interview.

Early this month, the Trump administration reinstated what officials called the “toughest” sanctions ever against Iran's banking and energy sectors with the aim of cutting off its oil sales and crucial exports.

The bans had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In an interview with BBC Persian last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Iranian officials must listen to Washington "if they want their people to eat."

The threat came as US officials often claim that the sanctions are not meant to target ordinary Iranians but rather to punish the government in Tehran. It also drew sharp rebuke from Iranian officials.

“It’s not often that US government officials are honest when they talk about our foreign policy,” former US congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul said in his weekly update video posted on Monday.

Pompeo’s starvation threat “also reveals the length to which the neocons are willing to go to get regime change in Iran,” Paul said.

“Ron Paul blamed this on the neoconservatives,” Jones told Press TV.

“It would be more honest to refer to them as Jews. The Jews are in charge of this punitive policy against Iran.”