Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is forming the “Iran Action Group,” comprised of foreign affairs professionals within the State Department and across the administration, and will be headed by Brian Hook, currently the State Department’s director of policy planning.
Pompeo announced the creation of the “Iran Action Group” Thursday, telling reporters that the group would be “directing, reviewing and coordinating all aspects of the State Department’s Iran-related activity,” CBS News reports.
“Our hope is that one day soon we can reach an agreement with Iran but we must see major changes in the regime both inside and outside of its borders. The Iranian people and the world are demanding that Iran finally act like a normal nation.”
The State Department is committed to a “whole of government effort to change the Iranian regime behavior,” Pompeo added. This demonstrates that the Trump administration is moving ahead to force changes in Iran, CBS News noted.
Ever since backing out of the Iran nuclear deal, Donald Trump’s administration has continued to maintain a hardline stance on Iran. As the Inquisitr previously reported, Iranian cities of Tehran, Qom, Shiraz, and Karaj erupted into protests following the collapse in the rial currency caused by U.S. sanctions.
None of this comes as a surprise to those who have been following the Trump administration’s actions against Iran. At a Paris event staged by Mujahedin-e-Khalq – once listed as a terrorist organization and widely seen as a personality cult – Donald Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, openly called for regime change, according to The Guardian .
Mike Pompeo launches Iran Action Group after nuclear deal withdrawal https://t.co/2CmPBVe2Nh
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) August 16, 2018
The same outlet noted that the policy of Donald Trump’s administration is not officially to call for regime change, but some administration officials have hinted at it.
“Iranians don’t want to replace one regime with another,” an analyst told Politico in June this year, claiming that the Mujahedin-e-Khalq simply do not have the backing in the country. However, if the U.S. continues to meddle in Iran, the change may come, whether the people want it or not.
With Secretary of State Mike Pompeo forming a dedicated group to coordinate and run U.S. policy toward Iran, U.S.-induced regime change in the sanctions-stricken country seems to be the end goal. Brian Hook, currently the State Department’s director of policy planning, will head the “Iran Action Group,” and report directly to Pompeo.
According to the New York Times , Hook is facing an enormous challenge since Donald Trump’s moves against Iran have been denounced by Germany, Britain, and France, who plan on abiding by the Iran nuclear deal. Iran, however, has not budged, and the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted that the American strategy will inevitably “fail.”
