Iran news in brief, January 13, 2019 - Part 2
1- Pompeo Talks Iran and Regional Stability
In an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined Washington’s three main priorities in the Middle East which include countering Iran, destroying ISIS and ensuring regional stability.
The US Secretary of State had harsh words for the Iranian Regime, saying that “countering Iran, the threat from the world’s largest state sponsor of terror – the Islamic Republic of Iran, is something President Trump has identified as one of his top priorities. We are determined to do that; we will do it with our partners in the Middle East. This is a mission for the world. It’s incredibly important and we are determined to do it,” he said.
2- US Envoy Brian Hook on Iran Says: We Are Just Getting Started,' Sanctions
The United States is aiming at driving down Iranian oil exports through further sanctions. “We are just getting started,” said Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Advisor to the Secretary of State.
“There will be more sanctions to come,” said hook during an exclusive interview on Saturday with Al Arabiya English in Abu Dhabi.
To a query on whether the sanctions have weakened the Iran regime, Hook answered: “Yes, our sanctions are weakening the regime, we have denied them billions of dollars of revenue through the loss of oil exports. And there will be billions more that they will be losing.
3- Iranian Political Prisoner Under Torture
Reza Malek, a political prisoner in the Evin prison, has been denied medical care for his severe backache. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment for ‘disrupting the public mind’, ‘insulting the Supreme Leader’, and ‘propaganda against the state’.
4- Top US Diplomat: No US Assistance on Syria Reconstruction Until Iran Is Out
Doubling down on the Trump’s administration’s anti-Iran message, the senior policy advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook, vowed no U.S. reconstruction assistance to the war-torn country until Iranian forces and its proxies are completely driven out.
“We think that if working with everybody in the region, and if we construct our diplomacy the way we want to, that we will be able to get rid of all forces under Iranian control,” Hook told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble in Abu Dhabi. “We are not going to permit them do in Syria what they did in Lebanon, and we will be withholding reconstruction assistance, we have a number of tools at our disposal to help accomplish that objective.”
5- Rouhani's Advisor Says Iran's Street Protests Will Continue
An adviser to Iran’s President Rouhani said that there was still potential for Iran protests because the cause of the protests still existed.
In a video interview with the state-run ISNA news agency which was published on their website on Friday, Hesamodin Ashna said that the economic context of the December 2017 protests were similar to those held in the 90’s, adding that they differed in the social context and that last year’s protests had “much more depth”.
