(NEWSMAX)The United States’ re-entry in the “crappy” Iran nuclear deal would make the Middle East “less stable” and the region “less secure,” former secretary of state Mike Pompeo warned Sunday.
In an interview with radio host John Catsimatidis on The Cat’s Roundtable on WABC 770 AM-N.Y., Pompeo said “the Iranians understand strength,” The Hill reported.
“They understand power. They understand resolve. We demonstrated that,” Pompeo said the former Trump administration approach to Iran.
“And when we did, the Iranians backed down.”
“We didn’t get all the way to where we would’ve hoped we could get in respect to getting Iran to stand down and enter an agreement that would’ve actually avoided them having a nuclear weapon, but we made an awful lot of progress,” he said.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in May 2018.
“It didn’t bring calm,” he said in a speech to the nation at the time. “It didn’t bring peace. And it never will.”
Trump signed a presidential memorandum re-imposing crippling sanctions on Iran that had been waived under the agreement, warning allies they could face similar restrictions if they aided Iran.
Trump had been a constant critic of the deal signed by President Barack Obama and considered his major diplomatic achievement. The pact had eased sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program and for not producing an atomic bomb.
President Joe Biden had said he’d rejoin the deal if Iran came back into compliance regarding limits on stockpiling and enriching uranium — but Pompeo warned doing so would be unsafe for the region.
“If this Administration unwinds that and goes back to the crappy deal that we had with Iran when President Obama was in office, America will be less secure,” he said. “Israel will be less secure. The Middle East will be less secure. And the entire region will be less stable.”
The remarks echoed those that Pompeo made to Newsmax TV in an interview last month.
“[W]hat I have seen so far, what I have heard so far, suggests a very muddled understanding of what led to so many successes that our administration had,” Pompeo said on “Spicer & Co.”
“When you’re tough, when you’re strong, where you establish deterrents, then securing American freedom is possible to do.
“But whether it’s China or Iran or threats from malign actors in other parts of the world, terrorist organizations, what they understand is strength. They understand a leader who is prepared to do the right thing to secure American freedom every day…And I hope this administration won’t throw that all away just because, ‘Well, it was from another administration.’”
A group of 140 House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on Tuesday urged the Biden administration to take a “comprehensive” approach to threats posed by Iran beyond just reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, The Hill reported.
“As the Biden administration considers negotiations with Iran, we write to express our bipartisan and shared view that we must seek an agreement or set of agreements with Iran that are comprehensive in nature to address the full range of threats that Iran poses to the region,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“As Democrats and Republicans from across the political spectrum, we are united in preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon and addressing the wide range of illicit Iranian behavior,” they added.
