State Dept. creates task force to ramp up pressure on Iran

WASHINGTON — In an effort to ramp up pressure for political changes in Iran, the State Department has set up a task force to coordinate punitive measures, including sanctions and oil boycotts, Secretary of State Mike Pomeo said Thursday.

Pompeo said the Iran Action Group would “closely synchronize” policy across the government, the latest step the Trump administration has taken since it withdrew the landmark Iran nuclear deal in May with the stated goal of ending Tehran’s support for militant groups in the Middle East, among other “malign behavior.” Pompeo said the administration is willing to talk to Iranian leaders, but “we must see major changes in the regime's behavior, both inside and outside of its borders.”

He said the new task force will reach out to other countries to create a “true multinational undertaking” in pressuring Iran. That may prove difficult since Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, the other signatories to the nuclear deal, still support the accord.

The administration has said it is not trying to overthrow the Islamic government in Tehran. But critics and those who favored the nuclear accord argue that the White House demands would require a new leadership and even a different political system in Iran.

Pompeo recently issued a 12-point list that demands Iran curtail production of ballistic missiles, withdraw forces from Syria, disarm Shiite militias in Iraq, and end support for Houthi rebels in Yemen and the ruling Hezbollah organization in Lebanon. He also said Iran must never acquire a nuclear bomb, and must stop all enrichment of uranium and allow unfettered access to all sites by U.N. inspectors — two demands that Iran was already largely meeting under the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump jettisoned.

The new group will be led by Brian Hook, who was director of policy planning at State and one of the few survivors of the team that worked with Pompeo’s predecessor, Rex Tillerson.

Trump fired Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil, in March over several policy disagreements, including whether to stay in the Iran nuclear pact.

Pompeo and Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, are arguably more hawkish on Iran than the president. When he was in Congress, Pompeo suggested bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, although he disavowed that during his confirmation hearing.