Secretary of State Mike Pompeo applauded European nations’ recent moves against the Iranian regime’s malign behavior.
“Countries increasingly understand that we must confront the ayatollahs, not coddle them. Nations are rallying to our side to confront the regime like never before,” Pompeo said in his January 10 speech in Cairo.
A prime example is the January 8 decision by the European Union to impose sanctions over Iran’s alleged involvement in the assassinations of two Dutch nationals of Iranian origin in the Netherlands in 2015 and 2017. Denmark and France foiled two Iranian terrorist attacks in 2018. An Iranian diplomat in Austria was arrested for alleged involvement in a plot to kill Iranian dissidents in France.
Today, EU issued its first sanctions against the Iranian regime since the Iran deal, and the Netherlands disclosed that #Iran directed the assassinations of two Dutch nationals in 2015 and 2017. This follows Denmark and France foiling two Iranian terrorist attacks in 2018. pic.twitter.com/tz7U4pTLh8
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 8, 2019
“We’d prefer not to take these measures,” one senior European diplomat told the Reuters news organization, “but they need to stop trying to kill people on our territory, and over the last three years they have beefed up their ballistic program.”
On January 21 , Germany acted to bar Iran’s Mahan Air from its airports.
“The airline transports weapons and fighters across the Middle East, supporting the Iranian regime’s destructive ambitions around the region. We encourage all our allies to follow suit,” Pompeo said in a tweet about the decision.
