US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that Lebanon’s Hezbollah “is in a much worse place” due to Washington’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran.
Pompeo submitted letters to the president of the UN Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York, accusing Iran of "significant" non-compliance with the terms of the 2015 nuclear accord.
It is intended to launch the start of the process to snapback sanctions on Iran that threatens to torpedo the nuclear deal.
“Today Hezbollah is in a much worse place, that the militias inside of Iraq that are run and controlled by the Iranians have fewer dollars, that Iran has less capacity in Syria today, all because of the US sanctions and our enforcement efforts,” Pompeo told reporters after delivering the letters.
Pompeo was sharply critical of “our friends in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom” who didn’t support a US resolution to indefinitely extend the arms embargo on Iran, which was resoundingly defeated a week ago.
He accused them of privately agreeing with the US but lacking courage to say so publicly and proposing “no alternatives.”
“Instead they chose to side with ayatollahs,” Pompeo said. “Their actions endanger the people of Iraq, of Yemen, of Lebanon, of Syria and indeed their own citizens as well.”
