Displaying items by tag: Mike Pompeo

Just days before he leaves office, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo asserted, ‘Al-Qaeda has a new home base in Iran.’ He said ties between Tehran and al-Qaeda vastly improved in 2015, when the Obama administration finalised the deal that saw Iran limit its nuclear enrichment in exchange for lifting international sanctions. In his speech Pompeo urged more international pressure on Tehran, but stopped short of calling for military action, saying, ‘If we chose to do that, there’s a much greater risk in executing it’. The speech could represent an escalation in the US’s ability to use force against Iran; the Trump administration could say it already had congressional approval for an attack on Iran, if al-Qaeda were proved to be on Iranian territory. Several incidents have brought Iran and the USA to the brink of conflict during Trump’s term. The Iranian foreign minister accused Pompeo of ‘warmongering lies’.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced a $1bn cut in American aid to Afghanistan after he failed to convince President Ghani and his political foe, Abdullah, to end a feud that has jeopardised a US-led peace effort. He said that the US is also prepared to cut another $1bn worth of assistance in 2021, and is conducting ‘a review of all of our programmes and projects to identify additional reductions and reconsider our pledges to future donor conferences for Afghanistan’. The harshly-worded announcement underscored how badly the US-led effort to end decades of strife in Afghanistan has stalled. En route back to Washington, Pompeo stopped at Qatar to meet Taliban officials, including their top negotiator. Pompeo indicated that the aid cut could be cancelled if everyone came to an agreement.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has urged Iranians to continue sending messages exposing the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on recent widespread protests; by some estimates, over 200 people have been killed. He stated the USA would impose sanctions on those it could identify for perpetrating abuses. ‘The Iranian people are, once again, on the streets because of the regime’s poor economic management,’ he said. ‘Instead of addressing their grievances, Tehran has responded with violence and by blaming those outside the country.’ Despite the Iranian regime's shutdown of the internet last week, the United States received 20,000 messages, videos and pictures from Iranians through a messaging service. ‘The United States hears you,’ Pompeo said. ‘We will continue to sanction Iranian officials who are responsible for these human rights abuses, just like we did to Iran’s minister of communications.’

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo extended condolences to the victims of the floods in Iran, and said his country was prepared to help. But in a sign that the offer may have been less than serious, he did so in a statement blaming Iranian mismanagement for the flooding, and without explaining how assistance could be directed to Iran without violating US sanctions. Pompeo rejected a claim by Iran that the sanctions were preventing donations to its Red Crescent. He said the USA was ready to contribute to international charities which could then forward the money to the Red Crescent for relief.

Three US citizens have been set free from prison by North Korea, according to a tweet on 9 May from US president Donald Trump. This is viewed as a goodwill gesture before a historic summit between Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un. Mr Trump greeted the men when they returned with secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who was in Pyongyang to arrange a date and location for the planned talks. Missionary Kim Hak-song, humanitarian worker Tony Kim, and pastor Kim Dong-chul boarded the plane ‘without assistance’, the White House said. They had been jailed for alleged anti-state activities and placed in labour camps.