The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday that Iran’s support to the Taliban in the form of weapons and funding is leading to further violence and hinders peace and stability of the Afghan people.
“Iran, too, must end support for the Taliban and other terrorists in Afghanistan and the region, and cease harboring senior al-Qaeda leaders,” Pompeo said at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, think tank.
He also demanded Iran make sweeping changes from dropping its nuclear program to pulling out of the Syrian civil war or face severe economic sanctions as President Donald Trump’s administration hardened its approach to Tehran.
He vowed “unprecedented financial pressure in the form of the strongest sanctions in history” unless Iran renounced all its nuclear activities, its ballistic-missile program, and its support of regional proxies.
“The Iranian regime has been fighting all over the Middle East for years,” he said, adding that “after our sanctions come in force, it will be battling to keep its economy alive. Iran will be forced to make a choice: Either fight to keep its economy off life support at home or squander precious wealth on fights abroad. It will not have the resources to do both.”
Meanwhile Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani dismissed threats made by Pompeo, saying the rest of the world no longer accepts Washington making decisions on their behalf.
“The world today does not accept that the United States decides for the world. Countries have their independence,” Rouhani said in a statement carried by multiple Iranian news agencies.
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