U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers remarks during an event to release of 2019 Trafficking in Persons report at the State Department in Washington, U.S., June 20, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will intensify its economic pressure on Iran until Tehran forgoes violence and engages with U.S. diplomatic efforts, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday.

“We are willing to engage when the time is right,” Pompeo said in a statement. He said when Tehran decides “to forgo violence and meet our diplomacy with diplomacy, it knows how to reach us.”