Mike Pompeo: Israel might need to attack Iran due to US 'appeasement'

• Author: TAL SPUNGIN
• Published date: 13 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Military action is "not in the best interests of anyone," he told Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Yaakov Katz.

Pompeo defended the Trump administration's decision to leave the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iranian nuclear deal, in 2018, saying the policies it adopted had made the world safer from the Iranian regime.

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"We denied them resources, and we denied them the ability to build out a Gulf-threatening culpability," he said. "The strike on [former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander] Qasem Soleimani demonstrated our willingness to defend American interests around the world. The work we were engaged in would have prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon."

In a speech to the UN General Assembly in September, US President Joe Biden said the US was seeking a return to the JCPOA.

"The current administration wants to re-enter the deal, longer, better, stronger? Well, I want it longer, I want it better, and I want it much, much stronger," Pompeo said.

Had the Trump administration stayed in office for another year or two, the cooperation between it and Israel would have been able to prevent Iranian nuclear advancements, he said.

"We were never going to let Iran get a nuclear weapon on our watch," he added.

Pompeo criticized the Biden administration for complying and returning to a "false principle that Israel is an illegal occupier" and called on Israel to confront that narrative, which he said is the beating heart of modern antisemitism and dubbed the "lie of occupation."

"Occupation is a legal term whose definition does not apply to the State of Israel under the law," Pompeo said, adding that US support of Israel is an expression of American patriotism.

"We want a legitimate discourse on policy, not a bunch of name-calling rhetoric that antisemitic squads like to throw around," he said, referring to...