In April 2019, the U.S. State Department announced it would not be extending any waivers that it had granted to several of Iran's key oil importers in an effort to ease the economic burden of being weaned off Iranian oil. "We are fulfilling our promise to get Iran's oil exports to zero and deny the regime the revenue it needs to fund terrorism and violent wars abroad," a State Department fact sheet noted. The State Department was particularly concerned about Iran's so-called "malign activities" in Lebanon in support of Hezbollah, in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad, and in Yemen in support of the Houthi rebels. The "maximum pressure" campaign was designed to starve these movements of Iranian financial support, thereby hastening the nation's demise.