US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech on Iran showed that the crux of the matter when it comes to withdrawing from the nuclear deal is Iran's destabilizing regional behavior. It emphasized that US strategy aims at countering Iranian interventions in the region.
Pompeo stressed that the nuclear deal has given Iran opened up chances for the cleric-led country to play a dangerously destructive role in the region.
Iranian news agencies focused on Pompeo’s speech which listed 12 demands for Tehran to fulfill. All requests made revolved around Iran ceasing its aggressive regional behavior.
Iran dismissed Washington’s ultimatum and one senior Iranian official said it showed the United States is seeking “regime change” in Iran.
“The sting of sanctions will only grow more painful if the regime does not change course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen for itself and the people of Iran,” Pompeo said in his first major speech since becoming secretary of state.
But Pompeo’s sanction talk goes beyond threats and into provoking Iran’s internal affairs and the people. Such implicit prodding could be vaguely referred to as calling for regime change in Iran.
The Iranian riyal is collapsing continuously, and the main victim of this collapse is the Iranian people.
"The Iranian regime should know this is just the beginning," Pompeo added.
“What has the 1979 revolution given Iran?” Pompeo asked calling implicitly for Iran to reconsider and revert its 40-year-old policy and hegemony-seeking behavior.
Pompeo said if Iran made major changes, the United States was prepared to ease sanctions, re-establish full diplomatic and commercial relations and support the country's re-integration into the international economic system.
Any new US sanctions will raise the cost of trade for Iran and are expected to further deter Western companies from investing there, giving hardliners, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an opportunity to cement their grip on power.
Pompeo referred to reports that documented the deterioration of human rights conditions and subjected the Iranians to torture by the authorities, and said that the people looked forward to change and freedom.
He stressed that the demonstrations showed that the Iranian people angry with his regime.
Pompeo highlighted the public in Iran, saying that the people do not wish to be ruled by a regime that has given millions of dollars to armed groups abroad while causing an economic crisis at home.
Pompeo said explicitly in his speech that it was time for the Iranian regime to respond to the demands for democracy in Iran, otherwise it will face irreversible collapse.
