US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the Heritage Foundation May 21, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP)
Pompeo vows ‘strongest sanctions in history’ against Iran
In first speech laying out Washington's Iran strategy after exiting nuke deal, secretary of state says Trump administration willing to talk, but only if Tehran meets prerequisites
By ERIC CORTELLESSA and AGENCIE
WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration is preparing to impose “the strongest sanctions in history” on Tehran after withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this month, in his first major speech laying out Washington’s strategy for curtailing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions and its regional adventurism.
“We will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime,” Pompeo told a crowd gathered at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in the nation’s capital.
“The sting of sanctions will only grow more painful if the regime does not change course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen for itself and the people of Iran,” he added.
Castigating the landmark international agreement brokered under the Obama administration, Pompeo said US President Donald Trump was “willing, ready and able” to negotiate a new deal, but not inside the context of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the deal is formally known.
“We will not renegotiate the JCPOA itself,” he said.
Trump’s newly installed top diplomat also hinted at the possibility of military action should Iranian leaders reconstitute their nuclear program.
“If they restart their nuclear program, they will have big problems, bigger problems than they’ve ever had before,” he said. Pompeo also threatened to “crush” Iran’s terrorist proxies around the world, and said Tehran would “never again have carte blanche to dominate the Middle East.”
“We will track down Iranian operatives and their Hezbollah proxies operating around the world and crush them,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo, one of the administration’s most strident critics of the pact, vowed to never let Iran develop a nuclear weapon while ticking off “12 conditions” that the United States considered prerequisites for any firm agreement with the Islamic Republic. He said the size of the list was testament to the “scope of the malign behavior of Iran.”
Pompeo demanded that Iran come clean about all of its past nuclear work, completely stop its uranium enrichment, provide the International Atomic Energy Agency “unqualified access” to all its military and nuclear sites throughout the country, halt its ballistic missile development and testing, end its support for Middle East terrorist groups, and respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi government.
He also said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps must end its support for terrorists and “end its threatening behavior against its neighbors, including Israel.”
At the same time, Pompeo offered Iran a series of dramatic potential US concessions if it agrees to make “major changes.” Under a new agreement, the US would be willing to lift all sanctions, restore full diplomatic and commercial ties with Iran, and even support the modernization of its economy, Pompeo said.
Repeatedly trying to draw a distinction between the Trump and Obama administrations’ approaches to the Iranian nuclear challenge, Pompeo said Washington would seek a treaty with Iran, ensuring that any agreement is codified in Congress, unlike the JCPOA, which had been an executive agreement. “A treaty would be our preferred way to go,” he said.
Should Iran fully comply with the Trump administration’s demands, Pompeo said, all the sanctions about to be imposed will be lifted and the United States would be “prepared to support the modernization and reintegration of Iran’s economy into the international system,” he said.
Such a response, he said, would yield better outcomes for the Iranian people, who have suffered under the oppression of Iran’s tyrannical, theocratic leaders.
Pompeo urged Iran to “look into the mirror” and “come to its senses.”
US President Donald Trump has long said the original 2015 deal with Iran — also signed by Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — did not go far enough, and now wants the Europeans and others to support his hardline strategy.
“In the strategy we are announcing today, we want the support of our most important allies and partners in the region and around the globe. I don’t just mean our friends in Europe,” Pompeo said.
The secretary of state also warned European businesses who work with Iran in violation of US sanctions that they will be held “to account.”
The re-establishment of the US sanctions will force European companies to choose between investing in Iran or trading with the United States, setting up a possible rift with allies across the Atalntic.
For now, the European Union is trying to persuade Iran to stay in the 2015 agreement, even without Washington’s participation.
“I know our allies in Europe may try to keep the old nuclear deal going with Tehran. That is their decision to make,”
Pompeo said. “They know where we stand.”
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