Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo excoriated Iran’s president-elect, and urged the Biden administration not to negotiate with the incoming Iranian government.
Speaking with Fox News Monday night, Pompeo cited Iranian president-elect Ebrahim Raisi’s involvement in the 1988 mass execution of political prisoners, saying Raisi has “the blood of thousands of people on his hands.”
Pompeo added that the US must maintain its sanctions regime on Tehran to force the Iranian government to “change its behavior”, without specifically referencing the country’s nuclear program.
“We left a lot of leverage for this administration, a couple thousand sanctions on the Iranian leaders and the economy,” said Pompeo.
“We built out a coalition of Gulf states and our friend and ally Israel, all work to keep containment on Iran to prevent them from having the money, the resources, all of the things we saw. You remember when they flew pallets of cash to Iran a few years back. This administration was given an enormous amount of leverage to put pressure on the Iranians.”
“You talked about the enrichment you can see they are firmly committed to putting pressure back on the United States so they will get more concessions at the table. Just this week they elected a fellow named Ebrahim Raisi as their new leader. He's got the blood of thousands of people on his hands. This is not someone we ought to be talking to. It's not a regime we should be engaged with. We ought to have the maximum pressure campaign to force this regime to change its behavior.”
Pompeo’s comments came just hours after Raisi said he would not meet with President Joe Biden, and declared himself a ‘defender of human rights’.
“I defended human rights, and I will continue to do so,” Raisi said Monday.
Later on Monday, the White House said that Biden has no plans to try to meet with the new Iranian president, who is set to take office in August.
"We don't currently have any diplomatic relations with Iran or any plans to meet at the leader level," Psaki told reporters, according to Reuters. "Our view is that the decision maker here is the Supreme Leader."