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 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces the formation of the Iran Action Group on Thursday in Washington. 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.
Hook cited his work with Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., as part of his expertise on Iran. Hook, who will become special representative for Iran, already was leading negotiations with allies to muster support for the administration’s approach to Iran.
The National IranianAmerican Council, which advocates for detente with Tehran, likened the creation of the action group to the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when flawed intelligence and poor policy were used to make the case for war.
The new group is an attempt to bypass normal channels at State “to implement Pompeo's dangerous vision to destabilize Iran and close diplomatic” options, said Jamal Abdi, the council’s president.
But critics of the Iran nuclear deal praised the decision, saying the new group establishes Iran as a major priority and will make it possible to marshal resources to squeeze Iran.
“This is a strong rebuke to the mullahs who are betting that the Trump administration may become weaker over time, too preoccupied with domestic politics to pay much attention to Iran,” said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, which advocates a hard line on Iran.
The Trump administration already has revived economic sanctions that were lifted as part of the nuclear agreement and called for a boycott of Iranian oil. Most countries have not complied, risking secondary sanctions that Washington could impose to restrict their access to U.S. markets.