Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blasted the Biden government’s willingness to resume nuclear talks with Iran, fearing it could lead to sanctions easing and concessions – but little substantial change in the country’s nuclear policy.
‘The ayatollah only understands power. “I was responding to the Iranian threat that protected the American people from terrorism and supported the Jewish state of Israel,” Pompeo told the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday. “The adoption of the European accommodation model will guarantee Iran a path to a nuclear arsenal.”
Pompeo’s remarks come the same day the State Department said it would welcome an invitation to restore diplomacy with Iran.
In 2018, three years after it was mediated by the Obama administration, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union withdrew from the agreement. The agreement reduced sanctions against Iran in exchange for reducing the country’s need for enriched uranium to fuel nuclear weapons.
Since the US withdrawal, Iran has acknowledged violating the 2015 agreement by using advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges in an underground plant.
Pompeo attributed the Trump administration’s steadfastness, saying that European countries “want to appease the Iranian theocracy all my time as foreign minister.”
“We refused,” he said.
Earlier this week, Pompeo said America needs to show strength when it comes to Iran.
“When the Iranians experience weakness, they will attack,” Pompeo told Fox News @ Night. “What we did was that when we got behind an American, we made it very clear: whether they attacked an American by proxy in Iraq, or they attacked an American through Hezbollah in Syria. , wherever it was, wherever Iran was responsible, we are going to hold the Iranians accountable. This is the kind of strength that built the deterrent model we had with respect to Iran. I hope this current government will not give up. ”