Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday there is a chance for global stability in the Middle East only if the Iranian regime changes its behavior.
The world needs to unite around the central idea that the Islamic Republic of Iran is the greatest threat,” Pompeo told “Sunday Morning Futures.” “And when that regime changes its behavior, we have the chance to create true global stability in the region.”
“That’s what we’ve been working on. That’s what President Trump asked us to do. And now, three years in, we can show the fruits of that effort,” he added.
US OFFICIALS TO MOVE FORWARD WITH ENFORCING UN SANCTIONS ON IRAN
The Trump administration took action against Iran this week, declaring that there will be “consequences” for United Nations member countries that violate the arms embargo that was set to expire on Oct. 18.
“The U.N. sanctions snapped back, putting another increasing restraint on the capacity for the Islamic Republic of Iran to create harm in the Middle East,” Pompeo said. “The previous deal which Secretary [of State John] Kerry and Vice President [Joe] Biden signed off on was to allow the Iranians on Oct. 18, just a couple of weeks from now, to traffic in weapons again. It’s nuts, absolutely nuts, and we stopped that. We stopped it last night with action at the United Nations.”
Pompeo also said Sunday that more countries in the Middle East will follow the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in normalizing relationships with Israel.
“There will be other countries that will make the right decision to recognize that Israel has its right to exist, and they’ll want to do business with them and want to connect with them and want their people to have exchanges,” Pompeo said. “I saw the number of LinkedIn exchanges between the United Arab Emirates and Israel — off the charts the day after this announcement. The people of those countries understand that this historic rejection of Israel and its right to exist was the wrong thing to do.”
President Donald Trump walks to the Abraham Accords signing ceremony at the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, in Washington with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Trump on Tuesday declared the “dawn of a new Middle East” as he presided over the signing of two historic Middle East diplomatic deals between Israel and the two Gulf nations.
Pompeo described the Trump administration as taking a “fundamentally different approach” to foreign policy in the Middle East.
“The establishment Middle East policy was that you had to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians first,” Pompeo said. “The president came to understand quickly that the real threat to these countries was the Islamic Republic of Iran so we flipped the narrative. We worked to deliver a coalition to get the Gulf states to work together, to convince them that they could in fact work alongside and partner with and do commerce with the state of Israel.”
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Fox News’ Caitlin McFall and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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