![](\"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mike_Pompeo.jpg)
<\/p>\nIranian officials and the normally divided Iranian media have uniformly rejected and ridiculed the May 21 speech by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlining 12 demands of Iran that in essence would fundamentally transform the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
Iran Newspaper, controlled by President Hassan Rouhani\u2019s administration, headlined its article on the speech \u201cThe illusions of the newly arrived politician.\u201d The article stated that the speech outlined \u201cTrump\u2019s hostile policies toward Iran.\u201d The Reformist Etemad chose the headline \u201cPompeo\u2019s delusions\u201d for its front-page story. While the Donald Trump administration is promising unprecedented sanctions against Iran and trying to put pressure on Tehran, Etemad reported, America\u2019s closest allies in Europe are busy negotiating with Iran on how to keep trade and the nuclear deal alive.<\/p>\n
The newspaper Javan, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, used its headline to call Pompeo\u2019s speech \u201cbluster.\u201d According to the article, Pompeo had tried to act like Trump in his speech, making 25 false statements. In addition, Pompeo said \u201cIran must\u201d 15 times. The article charged that when Pompeo was 14, the United States would say what Iran \u201cmust\u201d do, and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi would say \u201cyes,\u201d but then Iran kicked out the shah. Javan described Pompeo\u2019s 12 demands as \u201cunintentionally listing America\u2019s failures and Iran\u2019s ascending strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kayhan, whose editor is appointed by the supreme leader\u2019s office and is often the first to attack the Rouhani administration for every perceived and imagined shortcoming, saved its wrath for Pompeo. The headline for its front-page article roughly translates \u201cTo hell with Pompeo\u2019s 12\u201d and makes reference to America\u2019s \u201cbig mouth.\u201d The article said that Pompeo\u2019s speech, which channels Trump, was a reminder that whenever a country retreats in the face of the United States, Washington only increases its demands of it.<\/p>\n
A number of Iranian officials also commented on Pompeo\u2019s speech. In a speech delivered May 21, Rouhani likened Pompeo\u2019s demands to those from George W. Bush\u2019s presidency, adding, \u201cThe world will not accept America making decisions for all countries.\u201d On Pompeo, Rouhani said, \u201cThat a person who worked in a spy agency for years becomes the secretary of the state and wants to make decisions for all of the countries is in no way acceptable.\u201d Rouhani asked rhetorically, \u201cWho are you to decide for the world and Iran in the field of nuclear energy what Iran must do?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Foreign Ministry released a statement responding to what it called Pompeo\u2019s \u201cinsulting comments.\u201d It described Pompeo\u2019s speech as an attempt to \u201cdivert world attention from America\u2019s illegal action and violation of the nuclear deal.\u201d It also said Pompeo\u2019s speech once again demonstrated America\u2019s \u201cpoor intelligence, weak insight and backward analysis\u201d in its decision-making process. It added that those in America who are seeking war \u201cdo not know history nor are they able to learn its lessons.\u201d In response to Pompeo\u2019s accusations that Iran supports terrorist groups, the statement countered, referring to the United States \u201cas the father of al-Qaeda, Daesh [Islamic State], the hypocrites [Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, MEK], Jundollah and other takfiri terrorist groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even the normally soft-spoken Mohammad-Bagher Nobakht, spokesman for the Rouhani administration, struck an unusually harsh tone in his weekly press conference May 22, in light of Pompeo\u2019s speech. Nobakht referred to post-revolutionary Iran in the 1980s, asking rhetorically whether the United States remembers Iran\u2019s foreign policy of \u201cneither East nor West\u201d or the US helicopters that crashed in Iran attempting to rescue US hostages in 1980 or Iran not being weakened by the MEK bombing campaigns. Nobakht expressed incredulity at comments by US national security adviser John Bolton to an MEK crowd that they would be celebrating in Tehran in 2018.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.al-monitor.com\/pulse\/originals\/2018\/05\/iran-pompeo-speech-jcpoa-nuclear-deal-unity-iran-reaction.html<\/p>\n
Al-Monitor Staff<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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