Pompeo: US Ready to Talk to Iran ‘Without Preconditions’ By Patrick Goodenough for CNS News
The Trump administration is prepared to hold talks with Iranian regime representatives “without preconditions,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday.
He added, however, that the U.S. “effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of this Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue.”
Speaking during a visit to Switzerland, Pompeo was asked about a comment by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani over the weekend to the effect that the regime was willing to engage with the U.S., but not under threat.
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Press TV quoted Rouhani as telling Iranian athletes in Tehran on Saturday, “we support logic and negotiation if [the U.S.] sits at the negotiating table and fully respects and follows international regulations, not if it issues a decree to negotiate. In that case we will not buy it.”
Responding to the question during a press availability with his Swiss counterpart, Pompeo said, “We’re prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions. We’re ready to sit down with them.”
“But the American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of this Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue,” he added.
Echoing repeated statements by National Security Advisor John Bolton, President Trump during his recent visit to Japan reiterated that “regime change” in Iran is not his administration’s policy.
Going further, he added that Iran “has a chance to be a great country, with the same leadership.”
“We’re not looking for regime change. I just want to make that clear,” Trump said in Tokyo last Monday. “We’re looking for no nuclear weapons.”
In fact the administration has made clear it has more expectations of Tehran than just those relating to its nuclear activities; it is looking for a change in the regime’s behavior on a number of fronts.
