Washington, DC – Following Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Trump administration’s Iran policy, Foreign Policy for America released the following statement:
“The Trump administration’s Iran policy has been defined by false premises and illusions of grandeur. The administration is no closer to achieving its stated goals than the day it walked away from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In fact, since then Iran has breached the limits imposed by the JCPOA while also increasing its destabilizing activities in the Middle East. The Trump administration’s maximalist position has recklessly pushed us to the brink of a needless war with Iran.
“Having exhausted the amount of unilateral sanctions the United States is able to impose on Iran, the Trump administration is now pushing to “snapback” United Nations sanctions and extend the arms embargo that would be lifted under the JCPOA. Instead of using the JCPOA as a building block for increased diplomacy and consensus building, the Trump administration is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy in which Iran can never adequately meet its demands, which then artificially justifies further coercive measures.
“Indeed, today Secretary Pompeo reiterated these unrealistic demands and misled the committee about the impacts of its failed Iran policy. He was evasive. He dodged the tough questions, and frankly even some of the easy ones. He remained unwilling or unable to provide, in either a classified or unclassified setting according to Committee leadership, evidence that Soleimani’s assassination was necessary due to imminent threat to American forces.
“The hearing today was another disappointing performance by our nation’s top diplomat, who seemed more concerned with getting out in under two hours and scoring political points than answering honestly and openly for the administration’s disastrous Iran policy.”
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