Pompeo Threatens To Blow Up Iran Crisis via Sanctions Against Russia and China

Aug. 20, 2020 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened yesterday to impose sanctions on any and all nations that refuse to go along with the U.S. on the “snapback” of UN sanctions against Iran, threatening to blow up the Iran crisis into a direct confrontation with Russia and China. “I’ll head up to New York tomorrow, tomorrow afternoon. I’ll meet with the UN Security Council president [Indonesia for the month of August] and then the secretary-general will provide notification of the snapback, and then 30 days from now all the sanctions that were in place will resume,” Pompeo boasted during an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, last night. “They have been temporarily paused because of the ridiculous nuclear deal, and the world will be a safer place. The Iranians won’t have the chance to have Russian air-defense systems, Chinese tanks, all the things that pose risk and instability in the Middle East. The Gulf states are all excited about—Israel is excited about it. It’ll reduce their risk and it’ll make Americans safer too.”

Question: “So when China or Russia refuse, is the administration going to hold them accountable with sanctions too?"

Secretary Pompeo: “Absolutely. We have already done that. When we’ve seen any country violate our current sanctions, the current American sanctions, we’ve held every nation accountable for that. We’ll do the same thing with respect to the broader UN Security Council sanctions as well.”

Before Pompeo’s comments, President Donald Trump himself had stated: “The U.S. intends to restore virtually all of the previously suspended UN sanctions on Iran.... It’s a snapback.”

Earlier, Pompeo’s psychotic arrogance was on full display when he was asked about this during a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart. The result of the U.S. action, he claimed, will be a “valid, fully enforceable” UN Security Council resolution. “We have every expectation that [the sanctions] be enforced just like every other UN Security Council resolution that is in place,” he declared. He claimed that UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which confirmed the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran in international law, has a set of rights and obligations that all nations must adhere to.

Last week, the Security Council rejected a U.S. resolution on the snapback: Russia and China voted against it, while France, Germany and the United Kingdom abstained. Pompeo described this as “really unfortunate. It makes the European people less safe. Privately these countries all tell me they want this arms embargo extended. ...but they refuse to do the courageous thing—the morally right thing—and vote in support of extending it all for some holy grail of [the Iran deal]. The world needs to know. We’ll do the right thing.”