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Secretary Michael R. Pompeo Remarks to the Press

@drawandstrike @catesduane @rising_serpent @almostjingo @tracybeanz @CarrollQuigley1 @dbongino

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"The United States will continue to work with Hong Kong and the Chinese Communist Party officials to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, and to promote Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy."

"In Afghanistan, there was an aspect of that conflict that deserves more attention, and that is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s involvement there.  Iran has refused to join the regional and international consensus for peace and is, in fact,

today actively working to undermine the peace process by continuing its long global efforts to support militant groups there.  Most people know about Iran’s proxy networks in the Arab world,

but the regime also has a relationship with the Taliban and related groups, such as the Haqqanis, the Tora Bora, and the Mullah Dadullah group.  The Taliban’s entanglement in Iran’s dirty work will only harm the Afghanistan peace process."

"On the theme of basic freedoms, I want to commend members of Bahrain’s Council of Representatives for their January 2nd statement, in which they expressed deep concern over the inhumane and painful conditions to which Uighur Muslims in China are subjected.

Bahrain is recognizing what I’ve been saying for months: the Chinese Communist Party is committing mass human rights violations and abuses against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims held in detention in Xinjiang.

We’re happy with what Bahrain did, and we ask all countries, particularly those belonging to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, to denounce the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal treatment of Uighurs, which is part of the party’s broader war on faith."

"Finally, one more personnel matter.  I want to thank Ambassador John Bass, who I’ve come to know in my time in service both as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and now as Secretary of State.  His two-year tour of service in Kabul was remarkable.

It’s one of our most important missions.  Ambassador Bass is a respected strategic thinker, a man of incredible integrity.  He’s helped that country move forward to a brighter, more peaceful, and more secure future for all the Afghan people."

***lol***

"SECRETARY POMPEO:  Hello, Matt.

QUESTION:  And in honor of the new year, I have exactly 2,020 questions to ask you.  (Laughter.)  But I’ll pare them down for the sake of brevity.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Thank you, sir.

QUESTION:  One is there continue to be questions about the nature of the intelligence that led to the strike on – that killed General Soleimani.  Can you be at all more specific about how imminent this was, what exactly it was?

Secondly, why not allow Foreign Minister Zarif to come to the UN to speak at the Security Council?  And then lastly, did the situation in Iran have any – contribute at all to your decision not to run for the Senate from Kansas?  Thanks.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Thank you.  Last one’s easy.  I said the same thing yesterday that I said for months – no real news there.  I’ve said that I’m going to stay serving as Secretary of State so long as President Trump shall have me.

So, no, if I – you can accuse me of being inconsistent elsewise, but not on that one.

Second, we don’t comment on visa matters, those traveling here to the United States on visas, so I can’t add much more to this issue of Foreign Minister Zarif’s travel to the United States.

I’ll say only this:  We will always comply with our obligations under the UN requirements and the Headquarters Agreement, and we will do so in this particular instance and more broadly every day.

And finally, there’s been much made about this question of intelligence and imminence.  I answered it multiple times on Sunday.  I’m happy to walk through it again.

Anytime a president makes a decision of this magnitude there are multiple pieces of information that come before us.  We presented that to him, in all its broad detail.

We gave him all the best information that came not only from the intelligence community but for those of us who have teams in the field.  We evaluated the relevant risks and the opportunity that we thought might present itself at some point.

And we could see clearly that not only had Soleimani done all of the things that we have recounted – right, hundreds of thousands – a massacre in Syria, enormous destruction of countries like Lebanon and Iraq, where they’ve denied them sovereignty,

and the Iranians have really denied people in those two countries what it is they want, right, sovereignty, independence and freedom.  This is all Soleimani’s handiwork.  And then we’d watch as he was continuing the terror campaign in the region.

We know what happened at the end of last year, in December, ultimately leading to the death of an American.  So if you’re looking for imminence, you need to look no further than the days that led up to the strike that was taken against Soleimani.

And then you, in addition to that, have what we could clearly see were continuing efforts on behalf of this terrorist to build out a network of campaign activities that were going to lead potentially to the death of many more Americans.

It was the right decision.  We got it right.  The Department of Defense did excellent work.

And the President had an entirely legal, appropriate, and a basis, as well as a decision that fit perfectly within our strategy and how to counter the threat of malign activity from Iran more broadly.

***Not sharing full text, some omitted***

QUESTION:  Two questions, if you don’t mind.  Iran’s Foreign Affairs Minister Zarif granted an interview saying that Soleimani was on a diplomatic visit to Iraq, that the U.S. strike to take him out was state terrorism,

that President Trump has prepared to commit war crimes, and that Iranians are enraged.  First – that’s the first question.  I’d like your reaction to that.

Second question.  President Trump has indicated that Iran’s cultural sites could be targeted.  Is that true?  Are they on the target list, and if so, do you consider that a war crime?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  So, let’s see – so Zarif’s statement.  His first statement that Soleimani was traveling to Baghdad on a diplomatic mission – anybody here believe that?  Is there any history that would indicate that it was remotely possible that this kind gentleman,

this diplomat of great order, Qasem Soleimani, had traveled to Baghdad for the idea of conducting a peace mission?  I made you reporters laugh this morning.  That’s fantastic.  We know that wasn’t true.  We not only know the history, we know in that moment that was not true.

Zarif is a propagandist of the first order, and most of what you suggested in his text message or email or message that you laid out there was, indeed, Iranian propaganda.  It’s not new.  We’ve heard these same lies before.  It’s fundamentally false.

He was not there on a diplomatic mission trying to resolve a problem.  I know there’s been some story that he was there representing a Saudi peace deal.  I’ve spoken to my Saudi counterparts at great length.  I’ll leave to them what the contents of their messages may be.

But I can assure you that they will share my view, that he was not there representing some kind of agreement that was going to reduce risk or reduce the risks to the lives of Americans when he was on that trip.

Your last piece was about cultural sites.  I said on Sunday – I will reiterate it again – every target that’s being reviewed, every effort that’s being made will always be conducted inside the international laws of war.

I’ve seen it.  I’ve worked on this project, and I’m very confident of that.

***skipped some here***

QUESTION:  Thank you very much.  Mr. Secretary, two quick things here on the Soleimani strike.  Since the Trump administration withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal – what, about two years ago or so –

the Trump administration has said repeatedly that it is pursuing against Iran a maximum pressure campaign.  First question:  The Soleimani operation, was that part of the maximum pressure campaign?

...

QUESTION:  To your knowledge, was any legal counsel in the Executive Branch consulted for his or her input surrounding the legal aspects of the strike prior to its execution?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Yeah, I’ll leave to others to comment on that, but I can say, as a pattern of practice, I have never seen this administration engage in an activity of this nature without a thorough and complete legal review of what the bases would be if the President were to..

make a series of decisions.  Often, the lawyers review all of the options that are being presented to the President of the United States in advance of them being presented, such that every option that is presented to him has been fully vetted through the legal process.

I – I’m confident that that was the case here, although I don’t have specific knowledge of that.  I’m confident that that was the case.

Second, you asked about the scope of the – the strategy and the maximum pressure campaign that we’ve had in place.  It has a diplomatic component, it has had an economic component, and it has had a military component.

And what you have seen over the course of these past – May 2018 when we withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal – you’ve seen us execute that with enormous vigor and energy.  You’ve seen it diplomatically.

We’ve built out coalitions around the region – with the Israelis, with the Gulf states – on certain files, on the missile file and on the terror file, with our European partners as well, not just the E3. 

***GCC cough cough***

Go back and look from May of last year, go look at the statement that was made in Warsaw, a united statement centering the instability in the Middle East on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We’ve got a coalition now in the Straits of Hormuz.  We’ve diplomatically isolated the Iranian regime.

Second, economically, we’ve all seen the sanctions put in place.  It’s now over some thousand sanctions.  We’ve watched the regime struggle to figure out how it was they were going to make it through 2020.

They’ve got a budget that will fall short by a significant amount in 2020 as a direct result of the pressure that we’ve put on the regime.  And then you saw, over not just this past week but over the last year, you’ve seen our security component to this.

You’ve seen us reinforce allies in the region by ensuring that the Emirates and the Saudis and all of the others were prepared for what might happen if Iran decided to make choices that were bad for the Iranian people.

And then you saw more tactically, just these last few days, the President’s response when the Iranians made a bad decision to kill an American.  We hope they won’t make another bad decision just like that one.