Pompeo: Trump administration will use 'every tool we have' to keep Iran arms embargo in place
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on “Fox News @ Night” on Wednesday that President Trump is committed to using “every tool we have” to prevent Iran from getting more conventional arms.
Pompeo made the comment as he prepares a legal argument claiming the country is still a participant in the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News this week.
This plan would give the U.S. standing at the United Nations Security Council to push to extend the arms embargo on Iran expiring in October, and restore sanctions for Iran’s violations of the deal. The State Department has been considering this strategy to restore U.N. sanctions on Iran that were in place for months before the deal came into effect.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The New York Times reported the argument “would, in essence, claim it legally remains a ‘participant state’” in the Iran nuclear deal.
On Wednesday Pompeo told host Shannon Bream that “we're going to use every tool we can in our diplomatic capability to ensure that that prohibition on arms sales to Iran doesn't expire [in] just a handful of months.”
He noted that the Iran nuclear deal set a date in October of 2020 where any country can start to “sell conventional arms to the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We've seen their bad behavior. That was nuts,” Pompeo told Bream. “That's why we got out of the deal, that’s why we left it. Now our task is to do our best to make sure those arms can't be sold,” he continued.
Pompeo said that the U.S. is working with “our British, our French partners, our friends saying, ‘You all know this doesn't make sense, either.’ I think they agree with us on that.”
“We hope the Russians and the Chinese will see it that way, too,” he continued.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Iran gradually has been rolling back its commitment after President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal with world powers in 2018 – and recently announced that it no longer would respect limits set on how many centrifuges it could use to enrich uranium.
Tehran officials said their recent move on uranium enrichment was a “remedial step” in line with the deal and could be reversed.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Iran nuclear deal framework – officially the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" (JCPOA) -- was aimed at convincing Iran to stop developing nuclear weapons in exchange for economic incentives. Pompeo explained on Wednesday that “one option" to prevent the expiration "is to go to the U.N.”
“U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231 is pretty clear. It’s pretty clear about what a participant is,” Pompeo said. “It's separate from the JCPOA. We are one of the participants and the participants have the right to invoke snapback in a way that will prevent this expiration of the arms sales.”
“It would be a good thing. The whole world would benefit if we do that,” he continued. “It will keep arms out of the hands of the Ayatollah. I don't think anyone can dispute that that's a good thing.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}On Wednesday Pompeo also reacted to a tweet by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
On Monday Zarif tweeted: “2 yrs [years] ago, @SecPompeo and his boss declared ‘CEASING US participation’ in JCPOA, dreaming that their ‘max pressure’ would bring Iran to its knees. Given that policy's abject failure, he now wants to be JCPOA participant. Stop dreaming: Iranian Nation always decides its destiny.”
“I don't pay much attention to the words of Foreign Minister Zarif,” Pompeo said in response. “He is a professional disinformation campaigner.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“What the American people should know is President Trump's committed to using every tool we have to prevent the Iranians from getting more conventional arms. I'm convinced that we have the capacity to do that,” he continued.
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He went on to explain that “it’s not about getting back into” the JCPOA, which he called a “disaster.” He said the U.S. has “no intention” of doing that.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We're going to use the United Nations tools that have been made available to us … that passed the U.N. Security Council, to ensure that those arms sales don't take place,” he explained.
Fox News’ Frank Miles and Rich Edson contributed to this report.