US President Joe Biden (Nick Raille/Shutterstock)
The Biden administration’s willingness to return to the Iran nuclear deal has left Israel standing alone against Iran, Pompeo lamented.
By Donna Rachel Edmunds, World Israel News
American appeasement of Iran may have the effect of requiring Israel to resort to military action against Iran, but that outcome is “not in the best interests of anyone,” former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has commented.
Speaking at a conference hosted by The Jerusalem Post in Jerusalem, the former foreign policy chief under President Trump was scathing of the Biden administration’s current approach to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“We denied them resources, and we denied them the ability to build out a Gulf-threatening culpability,” he said. “The strike on [former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander] Qasem Soleimani demonstrated our willingness to defend American interests around the world. The work we were engaged in would have prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”
One of the main departures from the Trump program has been the Biden team’s keenness to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal. President Trump withdrew the United States from the multinational deal in 2018, with Iran exiting shortly after.
The Biden administration has made it clear that it would like to rebuild the deal.
“The current administration wants to re-enter the deal, longer, better, stronger? Well, I want it longer, I want it better, and I want it much, much stronger,” Pompeo said.
“We were never going to let Iran get a nuclear weapon on our watch,” he added, saying that had Trump stayed in power for just an extra year or two, the United States and Israel collectively could have ensured that Iran would not realize its nuclear ambitions.
His comments come just a day after former Mossad head Yossi Cohen told conference attendees that Israel must not be afraid to stand alone in preventing Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon.
“We have to develop capabilities to allow us to be absolutely independent, doing what Israel has done twice before,” he said, referring to the bombing of nuclear reactors in Syria and Iraq.
“They should not sleep quietly in Iran,” he added.
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