Pompeo:

US to Ramp Up Pressure on Iran

TEHRAN (defapress) – The Trump administration is doubling down on commercial and diplomatic efforts in the coming weeks to “put real pressure on Iran,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the start of a Middle East tour.

News ID: 74859

Date: 09 January 2019 - 11:20

“The counter Iran revolution is a coalition as effective today as it was yesterday and I’m very hopeful that it will continue to be effective and even more effective tomorrow,” Pompeo said in a joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, AFP reported.

Pompeo is meeting with US allies in the region, including stops in Jordan, Egypt and several Persian Gulf countries, to coordinate an anti-Iran campaign.

The trip comes amid confusion over conflicting statements by President Donald Trump and senior US officials about a planned US troop withdrawal from Syria.

Pompeo contended Tuesday that the planned withdrawal from Syria would not complicate the anti-Iran campaign. He claimed US allies, including Jordan, agree on what they view as the “enormous risk” Iran poses for the region.

“The president’s decision to withdraw our folks from Syria in no way impacts our capacity to deliver on that,” he said.

“You will see in the coming days and weeks that we are doubling not only our diplomatic but our commercial efforts to put real pressure on Iran to achieve what it is we set out for them back in May.”

In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted Tuesday that Pompeo and White House national security adviser John Bolton were “obsessed” with Iran and their behavior was “more and more like the behavior of persistently failing psychotic stalkers. In effect, US is substituting a real foreign policy with Iran-obsession and -phobia.”

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