DUBAI: Former US secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, told the World Government Summit in Dubai on Monday that he believed a deal between Iran and the United States was “unimaginable” under the current Ayatollah regime believing US strikes on the nation were still a possibility despite the apparent deescalation of the last few days.
“It's unimaginable that there could be a deal. To me, we've had a deal with Iranians multiple times,” he told a panel in Dubai on Tuesday.
“They have cheated and lied and avoided compliance with every deal they've signed.”
Pompeo was central to the US decision to leave the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal when he served as secretary during Donald Trumps first term. According to the US department of Justice, the Islamic Republic subsequently placed a $1 million bounty on his head.
Trump has in previous days said the US was seeking to srike a deal with Iran whilst simultanously ordering a large scale militray build up in the region. Pompeo said that he believed the US president could use military strikes – or at least the threat of them – to increase leverage on the regime to give up its enrichment and missiles fully, although he remained cynical of anything being achieved without regime change.
