if you've been following this for a few weeks, it can be confusing where the president of the united states stands. iran at once making excuses for them. on the other side, taking a remarkably tough stance. looking at military options and now look at sanctions options. >> reporter: the sanctions options appear and i would stress, appear to be a response to some of the events of the last couple of weeks because the white house and the president himself haven't been clear that these sanctions are in lieu of military strikes and they haven't said that military strikes are off the table. what's clear is they want to increase pressure on the iranian regime. we saw the last attempt to start a conversation didn't go terribly well. a message was conveyed by prime minister abe to the ayatollah. that was rejected then we have shooting down of that drone. here was that exchange. >> you said this is a response to events in the recent events.