Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is establishing an Iran Action Group to coordinate the Trump administration’s strategy to counter and “change the Iranian regime’s behavior” in the wake of the withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement.
“It will report directly to me,” Pompeo told reporters on Thursday.
The group will be led by Brian Hook, the director of policy planning and now special representative for Iran. Hook, who played a leading role in the effort to negotiate a “fix” to the Iran deal before President Trump decided to exit, will now lead the State Department’s efforts against Iran and orchestrate the broader administration’s movements.
“We are committed to a whole-of-government effort to change the Iranian regime’s behavior,” Pompeo said.
Hook takes on that new role just months away from a deadline to fully implement the U.S. sanctions that blacklist companies attempting to purchase Iranian oil. Those sanctions will be imposed over the objections of the European allies, which are still trying to preserve the Iran deal despite the U.S. withdrawal. That disagreement, Hook argued, shouldn’t hamper his efforts.
“The point is not to create any rifts with other nations,” he said, adding that “we have a lot more freedom to pursue the entire range of Iran’s threats” as a result of the exit from the deal.
Iranian officials are pressuring European leaders to facilitate investment in the country, despite the risk that the Treasury Department will exclude those entities from the U.S. banking system and market.
“The Europeans say the [Iran nuclear deal] is a security achievement for them,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Wednesday night, per state-run media. “Well, you ought to pay for your security. No one finds security without investment.”
But the White House — while taking care not to call for regime change — regards the sanctions pressure as a key factor in curtailing Iranian aggression in the short-term while setting the table for a fundamental overhaul of the regime’s policies.
“Our hope is that one day soon we can reach a new agreement with Iran, but we must see major changes in the regime’s behavior both inside and outside of its borders,” Pompeo said. “The Iran Action Group will drive daily progress on these objectives, and, I hope, do much more.”
