With the Trump administration moving ahead Monday with punishing new sanctions against Iran with the goal of completely halting the country’s oil exports, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly joked about a secret White House plot to overthrow the Iranian government during a private meeting with Iranian-American “community leaders.”
According to Axios, when asked last week whether the Trump administration has considered “the idea of a coup” in Iran, Pompeo responded: “Even if we did, would I be telling you guys about it?”
The room “broke out in laughter,” Axios reported, citing three anonymous sources in attendance, including one who shared “detailed contemporaneous notes” with the news outlet.
The secretary of state also reportedly said the administration is “careful not to use the language of regime change” and insisted the U.S. has no plans to intervene militarily in Iran.
Pompeo’s remarks came exactly one week before the Trump administration is expected to unveil sanctions against all countries that continue to import Iranian oil, a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.
“As of May 2, the State Department will no longer grant sanctions waivers to any country that is currently importing Iranian crude or condensate,” the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin reported on Sunday.
According to a senior State Department official who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity, “The policy of zero Iranian imports originated with Secretary Pompeo. He has executed this policy in tight coordination with the president every step of the way.”
Tyler Cullis, policy associate at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), called the Trump administration’s sanctions policy “evil” and said the goal is to force Iran to walk away from the international nuclear accord, which the White House violated last year.
“There has been no more significant foreign influence campaign than the one to get the United States into a war with Iran,” Cullis argued.
https://twitter.com/TylerCullis/status/1120096721147781120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1120096721147781120&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2019%2F04%2F22%2Famid-push-new-oil-sanctions-pompeo-reportedly-jokes-about-secret-coup-plot-against
During his meeting with Iranian-American community leaders last week, Pompeo was reportedly asked how he could guarantee the U.S. sanctions against Iran would not harm the Iranian people.
“There are no guarantees,” Pompeo responded, according to Axios.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy