Pompeo: We'll continue to sanction Iran officials for human rights abuses
Pompeo also addressed the regime’s decision to shut down the Internet in the country.
By OMRI NAHMIASUS SECRETARY OF STATE Mike Pompeo shake hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem earlier this year. Can the US administration be taken seriously when it comes to their interpretation of international law? (photo credit: JIM YOUNG/REUTERS)
WASHINGTON – The United States stands with protesters against the ayatollah’s regime in Iran and the US will continue to support the “struggle for a brighter future,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday.“To the courageous people of Iran who refuse to stay silent about 40 years of abuse by the regime, I say simply this: The United States hears you, we support you, and we will continue to stand with you and your struggle for a brighter future for your people and for your great nation,” Pompeo said in a press briefing at the State Department.“I have been following closely the protests that have recently broken out across the country,” he added. “The Iranian people are once again on the streets because of the regime’s poor economic management, and instead of addressing their grievances, Tehran has responded with violence and by blaming those outside of the country.”Pompeo also addressed the regime’s decision to shut down the Internet in the country.“I asked Iranians to share their messages with the United States so we could expose and sanction the abuses of the Iranian regime,” said the secretary of state. “We received to date nearly 20,000 messages, videos, pictures [and] notes of the regime’s abuses through Telegram messaging services. I hope they will continue to be sent to us. We will continue to sanction Iranian officials who are responsible for these human rights abuses, just like we did last week to Iran’s minister of communications.”He noted that shutting down the Internet could have a negative effect on the Iranian economy as well.“When you turn your Internet off, the little bit of commercial activity that is already taking place inside of Iran is diminished. Lots of commerce all around the world takes place through electronic communications, and the inability to speak there will further decrease the Iranian economy, which will further deny them, have the resources to conduct terrorism campaigns around the world.”Speaking about the recent arrest of journalists in Egypt, Pompeo noted that they should be released.“As part of our longstanding strategic partnership with Egypt, we continue to raise the fundamental importance of respect for human rights, universal freedoms and the need for robust civil society,” he said. “We call on the Egyptian government to respect freedom of the press and to release journalists detained during a raid last weekend.”Asked about Turkey’s testing of the S-400, Pompeo said: “It’s concerning. We’re still talking to the Turks; we’re still trying to figure our way through this thing. I don’t want to get out in front of what the president may or may not do, but we have made very clear to the Turkish government our desire to see them move away from putting into full operationalization the S-400 weapons system.”He avoided a question about the American aid to Lebanon and said: “I don’t have anything to say on the Lebanon funding issue today.”
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