Iran dismisses Pompeo’s ‘hypocritical’ offer to visit
FM Zarif says if US secretary of state is really open to talking, he should grant visas to Iranian journalists so they can interview him on his home turf
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has dismissed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s offer to visit and address the Iranian people as a “hypocritical gesture.”
Addressing Pompeo in remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said “You don’t need to come to Iran.” He suggested Pompeo instead grant visas for Iranian reporters to travel to the US and interview him, accusing him of having rejected their requests.
On Monday, Pompeo tweeted: “We aren’t afraid of (Zarif) coming to America where he enjoys the right to speak freely. Are the facts of the (Khamenei) regime so bad he cannot let me do the same thing in Tehran?” he said, referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “What if his people heard the truth, unfiltered, unabridged?”
Pompeo got a warmer response from Iranian officials after he last week told the Bloomberg news agency that he would “happily” go to Iran to address tensions between the two countries over US sanctions on Iran.
Government spokesman Ali Rabiei responded on Sunday saying Pompeo should come to Iran to be interviewed by state television anchor Marzieh Hashemi, who was once detained in America.
Hashemi, a black Muslim convert who was born in the United States, was arrested in the US in January under a law allowing the detention of people suspected of being potential witnesses in criminal cases. She was released after ten days and returned to Iran. Hashemi works as an anchor for Iran’s English-language channel Press TV.
Zarif last week visited the the United Nations in New York and renewed accusations that Washington is using sanctions to wage “economic terrorism” on Iran.
US-Iranian tensions have soared in recent months.
Tehran has been at loggerheads with Washington since US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran last year and reimposed punishing sanctions.
The standoff has recently escalated with drones shot down and tankers mysteriously attacked in sensitive Gulf waters.
Iran has begun publicly reducing its commitments to the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as European countries struggle to maintain enough economic and trade incentives for it to remain in the deal despite the US sanctions. The JCPOA granted Iran relief from previous sanctions in return for dismantling the weapons-capable aspects of its nuclear program.
Iran denies that it is seeking to obtain nuclear weapons.
The Times of Israel Community.