Pompeo: We Have Deprived Iran’s Government of Access to Wealth Worth Around $70 Billion
The US Secretary of State emphasized on Thursday, September 25, that the maximum pressure strategy against the Islamic Republic of Iran has been successful and has resulted in depriving the country of access to wealth worth approximately $70 billion.
Mike Pompeo, in an interview with Larry O’Connor’s radio program, compared the strategies of current and previous US administrations toward Iran, saying that when Donald Trump entered the White House, Iran was on a path to acquiring nuclear weapons, which was unacceptable for the security of the Middle East region, Israel, and the United States.
The US Secretary of State added that over the past three years and several months, the Donald Trump administration has sought to change the course of events and cut off Iran’s government access to money, resources, wealth, and the capacity to build nuclear weapons.
The United States attempted in August of this year to bring a resolution to the UN Security Council to extend Iran’s arms embargo, which expires on October 18, but 13 of the 15 Security Council members did not side with America.
Following that, the United States announced that it had activated the snapback mechanism to reinstate UN sanctions against Iran. However, Britain, France, and Germany say that the United States cannot activate the snapback mechanism because it withdrew from the nuclear deal.
Mike Pompeo, in response to a question about the lack of European countries’ cooperation with the United States, said that they claim we have common goals, yet they continue to remain in the nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA and consider it a good agreement. We don’t know how one can consider these two matters simultaneously.
The US Secretary of State stated: We know that the JCPOA has enabled them to continue their assassination campaigns. Because it provides them with the necessary money and resources. We hope that Europeans will join us.
He continued: But make no mistake. America has led the campaign against Iran over the past three years and has been very successful. The government’s situation is not good now. I think the amount of wealth that Iran has been deprived of is around $70 billion, an amount that the government of the clerical thieves has lost access to.
This comes as Emmanuel Macron, President of France, criticized the US maximum pressure strategy against Iran in his virtual address to the UN General Assembly, saying that this strategy has failed in achieving its objectives.
The President of France stated that the maximum pressure strategy (of the United States), which has been underway over the past few years, has not yet ended Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region and cannot provide assurance that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons.
Emmanuel Macron stressed that within the framework of the JCPOA, new capacities must be created to ensure that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons and to address Iran’s ballistic missile program as well as its efforts to destabilize the region.
Iran and six world powers including the United States, Russia, China, France, and Britain along with Germany reached an agreement in Vienna in 2015 known as the JCPOA to resolve ambiguities regarding Iran’s nuclear program, under which Iran limited some of its nuclear activities and in return, nuclear sanctions against Tehran were suspended.
Donald Trump, who has repeatedly described this agreement as the “worst” agreement in American history, announced America’s withdrawal from the deal in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions against Iran.
Source: Radio Farda
