Pompeo to Announce His 'Roadmap' Regarding Iran on Monday

A senior U.S. official said on Friday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to design a 'diplomatic roadmap' to pressure Iran into returning to the negotiating table. According to this senior official, Pompeo also intends to ask U.S. European allies and other countries for support for this plan next Monday. Brian Hook, the U.S. senior political advisor, stated that Pompeo is expected to call for broad support from countries for a counter-policy against 'the entirety of Iran's threats' in his first foreign policy speech on Monday. Recently, President Donald Trump emphasized that the Iranian government has continued to expand its ballistic missile program and 'support for terrorism' even after the nuclear deal, announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA and the reimposition of sanctions. On Friday, Brian Hook said U.S. officials hope that renewed economic pressures from new sanctions will lead Iran back to the negotiating table, as occurred several years ago, resulting in the 2015 nuclear agreement. Trump has declared that, in his view, the JCPOA is a 'bad deal' and efforts should be made to extract more concessions from Iran in a new agreement. Hook further stated that Washington is seeking a diplomatic solution with Iran, and sanctions are part of that strategy. He told reporters, 'Our goal is to bring all necessary pressures to change Iran's behavior and pursue a new framework that can address our concerns.' He added, 'We are very eager to have a kind of fast-paced diplomacy that is very focused and very determined to move toward our national security objectives.' He continued, 'We need a new framework... that addresses the entirety of Iran's threats.' According to Reuters, a senior European official from a JCPOA signatory country expressed concern on Friday that the Trump administration might seek 'maximum pressure and the idea of a ruthless display of power instead of negotiation.' This unnamed official added, 'We say that a negotiating approach should be pursued, but if they are merely seeking maximum pressure and the idea of a ruthless display of power, believing that this approach will work because it did with North Korea, then we will have a major problem.' Despite the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, the three European countries—Britain, France, and Germany—have recently emphasized their desire to preserve the JCPOA and stated they will do everything in their power to protect their companies' trade relations with Iran. In this context, the European Commission announced on Friday that it has begun the process of reviving 'blocking regulations' to protect the interests of European companies in Iran against U.S. sanctions.