Tehran continues to ramp up nuclear program

Talks on reviving the Iranian nuclear deal is set to resume on Nov. 29 in Vienna. Still, the Biden administration has expressed impatience with Iran and has suggested it has been looking at “other options.”

Negotiations between Iran and six powers, including the United States, wrapped up in June, and no date had been set for a seventh round of talks until now. They had been put on hold until after the Iranian presidential election on June 18, which ushered in hardline candidate Ebrahim Raisi.

“It’s really dangerous what the administration is doing with Iran. They will, if they head back into that deal, provide resources and money for a regime that has made clear its intentions,” said Pompeo, adding that leaders of the Islamic Republic aims “to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. They want to destroy America as well.”

“We ought not to be engaging with the regime like that. We ought not to be funding and underwriting them as seeking to integrate these people into the global space,” he said.

“It’s been fascinating in the last few weeks to watch [foreign-policy officials] as the Iranians have rejected their outstretched hand repeatedly to watch them come to see that this is a regime that has intention of stopping its nuclear program,” added Pompeo.

Indeed, Iran has continued to ramp up its nuclear program. Last week, Iran said it had almost doubled its stock of enriched uranium in less than a month, while the International Atomic Energy Agency has said its oversight capabilities in Iran are being weakened. Iran has enriched uranium up to 60 percent, which is a short gap from weapons-grade 90 percent. Under the nuclear deal, Iran was barred from enriching above 3.67 percent.

Pompeo said that the United States needs to stand with Israel against the threat of Iran.

“We can prevent that,” he said. “We can be alongside of them, and we can help them do what they need to do to take care of their own people in the Jewish homeland.”

Please click here to watch the full interview with Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.