Mike Pompeo’s Iran speech: Spot the unrealistic demands

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Editor’s note: Ghanbar Naderi is an Iranian columnist and political commentator. The article reflects the author’s opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

On Monday, May 21, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo set out 12 demands for inclusion in a new nuclear treaty with Iran.

The conditions, listed by Pompeo during a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, cannot be described as a new strategy, but rather a grab bag of wishful thinking that can only be interpreted as a call for regime change in Iran.

Still, this unrealistic list of outlandish demands and factual inaccuracies that Iran must meet if it wants nuclear talks with America else the US will "crush" Tehran with sanctions if it doesn't comply, needs some answers:

1) Declare to IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) full account of prior military dimensions of its nuclear program – and permanently abandon them.

This is pure desperation, taking a page straight from the Iraq War playbook. US intelligence officials say they are under pressure from the Trump White House to produce a justification to declare Iran in violation of the 2015 nuclear agreement.

According to Ned Price, a former CIA analyst who also served as a national Security Council spokesman and special assistant to Barack Obama, “They told me there was a sense of revulsion. There was a sense of déjà vu. There was a sense of ‘we’ve seen this movie before’.”

2) Stop enrichment and never pursue plutonium reprocessing – this includes closing Arak heavy-water reactor.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran has stopped enriching uranium. It also shut down its heavy-water reactor in Arak. Tehran has said repeatedly that its low enrichment of uranium is solely for domestic energy purposes and it has no interest in pursuing nukes, whether or not the international nuclear accord remains in place.

April 6, 2013: Natanz is the main uranium enrichment center in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This picture shows the new entrance building includes an administration building, and the cars parking lot for the plant's scientists and technicians. On the arch over the entrance, two portraits of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic and some of his sayings./ VCG Photo

3) Provide the IAEA with unqualified access to all sites throughout the entire country.

The head of IAEA has confirmed Iran’s commitment to the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement. Yukiya Amano says, “The IAEA continues the verification process regarding the non-diversion of nuclear material and the absence of undeclared activities in Iran. As of today, the agency has had access to all the locations that we needed to visit.”

4) End proliferation of ballistic missiles and cease development of nuclear-capable missile systems.

According to the US intelligence agencies, Iran has no nuclear weapons and no nuclear-capable missile systems. Iran’s ballistic missile program is for defense purposes and non-negotiable. Pompeo’s demands are intentionally unrealistic and clearly designed to ensure there cannot be any new negotiation.

5) Release all US citizens as well as those of partners and allies.

This is for the Iranian judiciary to decide and it has to go through the legal channel. Those who are behind bars are there because the judiciary says it has evidence they came to Iran to spy for Western intelligence agencies. These people with dual nationalities have all confessed to their sins on the record.

6) End support of terrorist groups including Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

These militant groups are not terrorists, rather, part of the resistance front. Iran supports the Palestinian cause for freedom and self-determination.

Same support exists for Hezbollah, which helped Syria to defeat the terrorist groups of ISIL and Al-Qaeda. Hezbollah has never attacked or threatened to attack any Western country. It was merely put on US Terror List to appease Israel.

7) Respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi government – permit disarming and demobilization of Shia militia.

Iran respects the sovereignty of all nations, including Iraq. It is up to the Iraqi government to merge Shia militias with national armed forces. Iran helped the Iraqi government to defeat the terrorist group of ISIL when no country in the West bothered to step in.

April 14, 2015: A Shia militia sniper from Abo al Fadhel al Abbas provides cover for Iraqi Army troops as they assault ISIL fighters on the frontline near Al-Karmah, in Anbar Province, Iraq./ VCG Photo

Iran did that at the invitation of Iraqi government and lost thousands of its troops along the way. According to Iraqi officials, Iran’s immediate intervention in June 2014 “stopped the swift advance of ISIL and saved the Iraqi capital, while the US waffled and delayed responding for months, abandoning Iraq during its hour of need.”

8) End support for Houthi militia and work toward a peaceful settlement in Yemen.

Iran supports dialogue and peace in Yemen. It even tried to stop the Houthis from taking the capital, but to no avail. It’s simply inaccurate to claim that the Houthis are Iranian proxies.

Yemen is a country awash with weapons. Yemenis don’t need Iranian weapons and missiles. The Americans and the Saudis lost the war and they are looking for a scapegoat. Mind you, Iran does not control a fourth Arab capital in Sana’a.

9) Withdraw all forces under Iran's command throughout the entirety of Syria.

Iran came to the rescue of Syria during its hour of need - upon an official request from Damascus. Iran says its troops will stay there as long as the Syrian government says so.

Helping to defeat ISIL was a particularly exultant moment for Iran and the world community. Iran has long accused the US of creating ISIL – citing Donald Trump’s frequent allegations on the president campaign trail that “President Barack Obama was the founder of the ISIL terrorist organization.”

10) End support for Taliban and cease harboring senior Al-Qaeda leaders.

Pompeo has asserted without evidence that Iran is serving as a "sanctuary for Al-Qaeda" and other terrorist organizations, further bolstering criticism of his speech as more tantrum than policy.

Why isn't Pompeo admitting the fact that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted in public that “the US government created Al-Qaeda, ISIL, Al Nusra, etc”?

Why does he refuse to tell the American people that the US has not ever actually fought ISIL, but instead has surreptitiously and very actively supported ISIL and the other terrorists in the Middle East?

Why does he refuse to reveal the fact that ever since Iran and Russia started to fight a true offensive war against ISIL the terrorist organization has been reduced to almost nothing in both Iraq and Syria?

May 21, 2018: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo makes a speech at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, US./ VCG Photo

11) End the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Quds Force's support for terrorists.

This is a step too far. The IRGC helped Iraq to defeat the terrorist group of ISIL. The US is angry at the IRGC because instead of cooperating with the US, the Quds Force undermined the US occupation of Iraq.

The IRGC helped train anti-terror volunteer groups and militants (Sunni and Shia), and led a ground war against ISIL in Iraq with great success.

The IRGC’s military assistance to Syria likewise focused on several areas: advising, training, planning, coordination, information and intelligence, which partly led to the departure of ISIL forces from the country – in collaboration with Russian forces.

12) End its threatening behavior against its neighbors.

The threat of Iran is overblown. For more than 200 years, Iran has not attacked or threatened its neighbors. Iran sees itself not as a threat but as threatened by America’s hostile allies and Israel.

It is sad reality that if one wants to get accurate information about this, one must mostly bypass Pompeo’s Monday speech and look to sources outside the US government.

Whatever the reality, the threat from Iran has been overblown for various reasons including by Israel and the Military-Industrial Complex to relieve Persian Gulf Arab States of their money in return for expensive American armaments and by those in Tel Aviv who want to construct a scary enemy to prolong the apartheid regime and to attract political support.

In reality, Pompeo’s unworkable demands should convince partner governments, particularly those in Western Europe, that they need to develop their own policies without looking for leadership from the US in dealing with Iran.

The Trump administration’s contradictory approach to Iran - exemplified in Pompeo’s outlandish speech – is not designed “to protect American people.” Far from it. It is for the Washington Power Elite permanently ensconced in D.C. to launch yet another protracted conflict in the Middle East that we all know is going to destabilize the entire planet.