Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today warned Iran’s dictatorship that the incoming president would apply a policy of “maximum pressure” help topple the murderous regime.
He accused both Democrat politicians in the US and EU leaders, “sitting in salons in Europe”, of effectively choosing to appease both deposed President Assad in Syria and Ayatollah Khamenei in Iran – and added that this would not be the case when President Trump took office.
Mr Pompeo, who was Trump’s Secretary of State from 2018 to 2021, said: “I am confident that after January 20 that will not happen again.
“Trump will return to office in just a few days. He has talked in detail about bringing back his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign that had proved so successful.”
Pompeo made the claims in a high-profile meeting with Iranian opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi, the President elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran at its headquarters in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris.
He said Assad was now “hiding out in Russia” hoping he would not be killed and that the Iranian theocratic dictator would be next.
And referring to Iran’s network of proxy terror groups he added: “In Lebanon Hezbollah has been reduced from what was perceived as a powerful force to total impotence – a blessing for the Iranian people and the world – and the Ayatollah was powerless to stop it.
“Similarly Hamas is on the verge of complete defeat in Gaza, its senior leaders gone.
“And most importantly Syria, the bridge between all the Iranian proxy forces.. I think the fact it fell so quickly shows what a paper tiger it was. It told the world that the Ayatollah is finished too.
“The Ayatollah has been revealed as a complete chancer who only rules by fear, and his day is quickly coming to an end.”
Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” was first imposed after he scrapped the Obama-negotiated Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) also known as the Iran deal.
The JCPOA agreement, finalized in Vienna on 14 July 2015, between Iran, The United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany, was supposed to keep Tehran’s nuclear ambitions in check with a series of cash-based incentives.
But it soon became clear Iran had no intention of sticking to either the letter or spirit of the JCPOA and Trump scrapped it in 2018 in favour of a « maximum pressure » policy of tough sanctions applied to Iran and all countries and companies doing business with Iran. Tehran was effectively cut off from the international financial system.
The strategy hit the Ayatollah’s regime hard and was welcomed by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a group fighting to restore democracy to the beleaguered country.
Welcoming Mr Pompeo before he made his keynote speech at the high-profile assembly Ms Rajavi confirmed that indeed relentless efforts to impose maximum pressure on the Iranian regime were required.
She added a powerful grassroots resistance, spearheaded by the MEK, was terrifying the regime and added: “The next dictatorship that must be overthrown is the mullahs’ regime.”
She received a standing ovation.
Mr Pompeo also received a standing ovation for underscoring the role of the MEK as a battle tested force that is essential for a regime change in Iran.
Ms Rajavi has a 10-point plan charting the future Iran during transition and said: “New US policy, as the new administration comes in, needs to create even more space for the Iranian resistance to be vigilant on the ground. The focal point of this policy has to be recognition of the Iranian people’s right to resist and to recognition of the National Council of Resistance of Iran as the single best alternative to the clerics that are ruling Iran.”
The former Secretary of State insisted human decency would triumph over the atrocities of the Ayatollah’s regime.
He said: “This is worthy because it is going to lead to an outcome you have worked so hard for for so many years.
“It is worthy because it is the right thing for all of the Iranian people, and it is worthy because in the end it will hold to account the slaughterers, the indecent and those who committed atrocities and such horrors.
“What we have seen take place in the last few months throughout the region the absolute clarity… this has shown about this devastatingly weak regime that in the end human decency will triumph.”
According to Amnesty International, Iran carried out 74 percent of all recorded executions in the world in 2023.
This alarming trend continues as new President Masoud Pezeshkian took office last year with more than 670 executions – including 10 women, in August 2024 alone. Victims also include several political dissidents, including Reza Rasaei, arrested during the uprising in November 2022 in Shahriar, Tehran province. Scores of MEK activists have been sentenced to death in recent weeks.
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