Pompeo: $8B Arms Sales to Middle East Allies ‘Appropriate and Necessary’

“Look, we are here supporting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan to protect their interests and also it protects ours, American interests. This is the right thing to do. And those are important strategic partners to the United States,” he said.

Pompeo also noted that if the U.S. did not sell Saudi Arabia and other regional allies the weapons, they would buy them from the Russians or the Chinese, who have very different interests from the U.S. He argued that buying the systems from the U.S. also decreases the risks of misuse of these systems. The sales will also create 40,000 jobs in the U.S., he said.

In response to the administration’s pressure campaign, former Obama officials and Democrats have launched their own campaign to save the Iran nuclear deal, which the U.S. pulled out of last year. In a series of op-eds and statements in recent weeks, they have accused the Trump administration of wanting war with Iran.

Pompeo called suggestions the administration wants war with Iran “patently false.”

“I’ve said it, the president’s said it, we do not war with the Islamic Republican of Iran,” he said. However, he said, Iran must stop its dangerous behavior.

“For 40 years, the Iranians have attacked and killed Americans. They’ve made clear their intentions to continue to do so. They continue to chant ‘death to America.’ They continue to talk about wiping Israel from the face of the earth. They’re the most antisemitic country by policy in the world, and so that’s a real threat,” he said.

“We don’t war with them. What we want them to do is to cease their nuclear program, we want them to step away from their proxy campaign attempting to essentially control five capitals in the Middle East,” he continued.

“We want them to cease continuing to develop their missile program that could launch nuclear missile weapons across the world,” he said. “The UN Security Council said the same thing, and UN Security Council [Resolution] 2231. That’s what we’re looking for, and we’re using peaceful means — economic and diplomatic efforts to achieve those ends.”

He blasted the Obama administration’s approach to dealing with Iran, and said President Trump has pursued a different path.

“The Obama administration for the last eight years had appeased Iran and allowed them to grow their terror regime, enhance the capacity of their proxies threatening not only the United States and Israel, but the Gulf States as well,” he said.

“President Trump has taken a very different approach and done our best to deny the Iranians the capacity to conduct their terror campaigns,” he said.

“These arms sales are a piece of our complete effort, of the holistic package of efforts we’re undertaking to deter Iran and to deny them the resources they need to inflict these terror efforts all around the world,” he said.

Story cited here.

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