Pompeo: Lawmakers are grandstanding
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said U.S. lawmakers calling for an even harder sanctions policy against Iran were grandstanding and vowed that the State Department would ultimately “get it right” when it comes to exerting the needed level of pressure.
Pompeo’s remarks come days after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, urged him not to allow a small group of nations to continue buying Iranian oil after U.S. sanctions waivers expire next month.
The comments exposed a rare rift between prominent Iran hawks such as Pompeo and a group including Cruz and national security adviser John Bolton that favors an even harder-line approach to fulfill a promise of getting Iran’s oil exports to zero. Pompeo said accusations that the State Department was easing off a maximum pressure approach were “ludicrous.”
“People want to tell stories; people want to sell newspapers. I’ve got it. Congressmen will grandstand, I’ve got that, too. The State Department’s going to get it right,” he said in an interview with two reporters on his plane en route to Paraguay. “We’re going to put pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran, on the regime, until we get for the Iranian people what it is they deserve: the chance to live a normal life in a state that isn’t the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.”
Several countries, including India, Japan, China and Turkey, sought a waiver of the sanctions President Donald Trump’s administration reimposed after it withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year. In November, the countries were allowed to continue buying Iranian oil without facing sanctions — an acknowledgment that the administration’s Iran policy has been straining U.S. relations with its allies and partners.
Trump, who will announce his decision on the waivers when they expire in early May, has remained out of the fight in his administration.
The decision pits his desire to please pro-Israel constituents who favor a hardline Iran policy against his desire to keep oil prices low. Taking millions of barrels of Iranian oil off the market could at some point affect American consumers at the gas pump.