Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2019
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer, Director

Pompeo Discusses The Middle East

Yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo participated in a forum at the University of Louisville. After delivering a speech about U.S. policy toward Latin America, he answered a few questions from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Given recent headlines, Sen. McConnell was naturally curious to hear Secretary Pompeo's views about the situation in the Middle East today. Not surprisingly, he noted a common element in all the unrest -- the nefarious influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is an existential threat to our ally Israel.

Secretary Pompeo also commented on President Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal and how that decision is impacting events today. Below are some excerpts of Pompeo's remarks.

"In the Middle East, what you see taking place is the Iraqi prime minister resigned within the last 48 hours. He did so because the people were demanding freedom and the security forces had killed dozens and dozens of people. That's due in large part to Iranian influence there.

"The same is true in Lebanon. . . You have Christians, Sunni Muslims, you have people from all across Lebanon just demanding basic autonomy for the nation. They want Hezbollah and Iran out of their country . . . as a violent and repressive force. . . The same thing is happening in Baghdad.

"And the protests in Iran itself in 90-plus cities are taking place because the Iranian people are fed up. They see a theocracy that is stealing money. The ayatollah is stealing tens and tens of millions of dollars, putting it in his own pocket, money that should go to provide resources for the Iranian people. . .

"So the previous administration chose Iran to be its primary security partner in the Middle East. We thought that was a fundamentally flawed proposition. . . And so President Trump made the decision to withdraw from it. That had a number of salutatory effects.

"The first is it stopped funding the regime in Iran. We all saw the $150 billion that was transferred there, but they permitted European countries to trade in Iran, creating wealth, creating money that underwrote Hezbollah in Lebanon, underwrote Shia militias in Iraq, that underwrote assassination campaigns in Europe. . .

"The United States has reimposed sanctions. . . These sanctions have been incredibly effective. Iran's wealth will decrease materially in 2019 from 2018, and again in 2020 from 2019. And their ability to trade with the rest of the world is also greatly diminished."

Secretary Pompeo is absolutely right. Iran's economy has taken a big hit. It's GDP is down almost 10%. Today's Wall Street Journal notes that the regime is rapidly burning through its cash reserves to compensate for lost oil sales and trade revenues, but it doesn't have much time left.

As Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, explained: "If Iran is running dangerously low on these reserves, that could trigger a balance-of-payments crisis and a further collapse of its currency, greater hyperinflation and mass layoffs as it can't buy the machinery and technology it needs to power its economy."