Pompeo Says All Options Are On the Table to Counter Iran

Says 'maximum pressure' campaign facilitated Israel's normalization agreements with Arab countries

Wrapping up a controversial trip to Israel that included visits to settlements in the West Bank and the Golan heights, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the Trump administration’s Iran policy with The Jerusalem Post on Friday.

Pompeo’s interview came after a report from The New York Times said President Trump reviewed options to strike an Iranian nuclear site during an Oval Office meeting last week. According to the Times, Trump was talked out of a military attack by Pompeo and other advisors.

The Post failed to ask Pompeo about the alarming report, but did ask if “all options” were still on the table regarding Iran’s nuclear program. “Of course,” Pompeo said. “The administration has been clear on that for its entire four years. There is no reason that would change today or tomorrow.”

Pompeo went on to boast about the administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran and said the policy played a role in the brokering of normalization deals with Israel, known as the Abraham Accords.

“That also sent a strong message to the Middle East that facilitated the Abraham Accords [through] this central understanding, this isolation of Iran in ways that are deeply different than before whether it’s the [United Arab] Emirates or Bahrain or Sudan or whoever signs the Abraham Accords next,” he said.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.