Allies Ignoring Iranian Protesters to ‘Answer for Their Behavior’

CIA Director Mike Pompeo declared on “Fox News Sunday” that U.S. allies who don’t support President Donald Trump’s condemnation of the Iranian government amid protests will “have to answer for their behavior.”

Trump blasted the regime of the Iranian mullahs multiple times last week — and threw his support behind the anti-government protesters there. Trump said in a January 2 tweet that “the people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime.”

Trump also criticized former President Barack Obama for “so foolishly” giving the Iranian regime billions of dollars that “went into terrorism and into their ‘pockets.'”

The president insisted it was “TIME FOR CHANGE” in another tweet, and Pompeo said other nations should take heed.

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“President Trump made very clear that America supports the Iranian people and is looking for them to have a voice and better economic and living conditions,” Pompeo said, adding that Iran’s “backward-looking regime” is “the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.”

“Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace highlighted how some of the top allies of the U.S. “failed to support us” when the U.S. called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss the skirmishes, which left at least 21 people dead.

“You have been very clear in your statements about the regime. President Trump has been, if anything, even clearer about it,” Wallace said. “Why is it that our top European allies failed to support us on this and in fact France, when we brought it up before the emergency meeting at the United Nations Security Council, joined with Russia and China and said this isn’t a fit subject to bring up at the U.N. Security Council?”

Pompeo replied, “Yes, they’ll have to answer for their behavior.”

“But my sense is that we are in the same position, that is I think when I talked to my counterparts in Europe, they are with us in working to figure out ways to counter Iran’s maligned behavior throughout the world,” Pompeo continued. “And indeed we are working together with them in that effort.”

Trump has the opportunity to kill the deal he has repeatedly denounced.

Iranian officials claimed Sunday the protests were over and cast blame on the U.S. and other nations for supporting the anti-government protests. When Wallace asked Pompeo if “the repressive authorities of the Iranian regime” did succeed in shutting down the protests, the CIA chief maintained that “they’re still going on [at] a low level.”

“There has certainly been violence that has taken place — that is, the regime has used force to push back against it. But it’s my expectation these protests are not behind us,” Pompeo said.

Related: Trump Turns Up the Heat on Iran

United States support of the Iranian protesters and condemnation of the mullahs’ government also highlighted the tenuous fate of the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal. With the deadline for acting looming in mid-January, Trump has the opportunity to kill the deal he has repeatedly denounced.

Pompeo admitted that it is possible that the Iranian government could act in ways that would make it “sensible and reasonable” to remain in the deal.

“They could take some of the weaknesses from the agreement, from the joint comprehensive agreement, extend deadlines, put snapback sanctions into place where they could really happen,” Pompeo said. “So there are [several] things they could do to make that deal better, and then ultimately the president will have to make the decision about whether to remain in the deal or not.”

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.