SOCHI: US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Tuesday said his country isnot seeking war with Iran, despite a spike in tensions that has seen thePentagon dispatch nuclear-capable bombers to the region.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meanwhile insisted theshowdown between the Islamic republic and the United States was a test ofresolve rather than a military encounter.
“We fundamentally do not seek a war with Iran,” Pompeo said during a visitto Russia, a key backer of Tehran which has blamed the current crisis onWashington’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
But Pompeo added: “We have also made clear to the Iranians that if Americaninterests are attacked, we will most certainly respond in an appropriatefashion.”
“We are looking for Iran to behave like a normal country,” Pompeo said,pointing in part to Tehran’s backing of Huthi rebels in Yemen who are underattack from US ally Saudi Arabia.
Huthi rebels “are launching missiles into areas where there are Russiansand Americans travelling. These missiles could easily kill a Russian or anAmerican,” Pompeo said.
Khamenei echoed Pompeo’s rhetoric in a speech to officials.
“This face-off is not military because there is not going to be any war.Neither we nor them (the US) seek war. They know it will not be in theirinterest,” he said, quoted on his website.
“The definite decision of the Iranian nation is to resist against America,”Khamenei said, adding that “in this showdown America will be forced toretreat… because our resolve is stronger.”
The supreme leader said negotiating with the US was “poison” because theAmericans wanted to deprive Iran of its missiles and “strategic depth” inthe region.
“Negotiating with the present American government is doubly poisonous… theyare not decent humans, they don’t stand by anything,” he said referring tothe US decision to withdraw from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal betweenIran and major world powers.
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US ‘maximum pressure’ campaign
Washington last year pulled out of a nuclear deal backed by Europe, Russiaand China, which curbed Iran’s nuclear ambitions in return for sanctionsrelief.
Since then it has slapped sweeping sanctions on Iran in an all-out effortto reduce Tehran’s regional clout.
The US has recentlyramped up the pressure, deploying an aircraft carrier strike group andnuclear-capable bombers to counter vaguely described threats from Iran.On Sunday, mysterious attacks by unknown assailants against four ships inthe region, including two from Saudi Arabia, sent war talk up another notch.
UN inspectors have said Iran is complying with the deal, and Moscow lastweek denounced new US sanctions on the country’s mining industry, callingfor new talks to save the nuclear accord.
During Pompeo’s visit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscowwould work “to ensure this situation does not descend into a militaryscenario”.
“I hope that reason will triumph,” Lavrov said, adding that he hopedreports in the US media that President Donald Trump is planning to send120,000 troops to counter Iran turn out to be wrong.
Trump himself rejected the New York Times report, saying it was “fake news”but did not rule out deploying “a hell of a lot more” soldiers in thefuture.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov earlier Tuesday slammed what he calledWashington’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, saying it would onlydrive Tehran into a corner.
Pompeo cancelled a stop in Moscow Monday to instead have an unscheduledmeeting in Brussels with European foreign ministers, who have beenuncomfortable with the hawkish direction of the US on Iran. -APP/AFP
