by WorldTribune Staff, July 23, 2018
The United States has sent a powerful signal of support to the people of Iran while challenging its Islamist regime.
President Donald Trump on July 22 warned Iranian President Hassan Rouhani not to issue threats against the United States.
Trump tweeted: “Never, ever threaten the United States again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence & death. Be cautious!”
Trump’s tweet came after Rouhani had said “America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.”
White House national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement on July 23: “I spoke to the president over the last several days, and President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a July 22 speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs in Simi Valley, California, blasted Iran’s ruling elite and its religious leaders for using their positions to “line their pockets” while the average Iranian “cries out for jobs, reform, and opportunity.”
Pompeo said that the Iranian people must determine the country’s direction, Washington “will support the long-ignored voice of the Iranian people.”
He added that the U.S. government would be launching a 24/7 Farsi-language channel on TV, radio, digital and social media formats to reach Iranians in Iran and around the globe.
Pompeo called Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other Islamic religious leaders “hypocritical holy men” and pointed out Iranian officials had amassed hundreds of millions of dollars of wealth from their positions, saying the Islamic Republic “is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government.”
Pompeo attacked both Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif as “polished front men” for the ayatollahs’ international con artistry. “Their nuclear deal didn’t make them moderates; it made them wolves in sheep’s clothing,” he said.
“Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Forty years of kleptocracy. Forty years of the people’s wealth squandered on supporting terrorism. Forty years of ordinary Iranians thrown in jail for peaceful expression of their rights.”