Iran’s ruling ayatollahs would be foolish to ignore the forthright warning in US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s landmark address in Cairo on the future of America’s Middle East policy under Donald Trump. Speaking at the same university where, in a major policy speech nine years ago, Barack Obama held out the historic olive branch to Tehran which led to the 2015 nuclear deal, Mr Pompeo left no doubt about the extent to which US policy in the region has changed.
Washington, Mr Pompeo declared, was committed to “expel every last Iranian boot” from Syria where, in alliance with Russia, Tehran, in its drive for regional hegemony, has been propping up the murderous Assad regime. Without mentioning Mr Obama by name, Mr Pompeo heaped scorn on the former president’s “misguided” thinking on the use of military force and reluctance to call out “radical Islam”. That was a reference to Mr Obama’s preference for the term “violent extremism” when referring to Islamist terrorism and his call for an “opening towards Muslims” that would “transcend stereotypes”.
“Remember: it was here, here in this very city, another American stood before you … he told you that radical terrorism does not stem from ideology. He told you 9/11 led my country to abandon its ideals in the Middle East,” Mr Pompeo said as he argued Mr Obama had misjudged the Arab Spring uprisings. The Obama administration’s Middle East policy, he said, was an example of “what not to do”, whether in striking the nuclear deal or abandoning long-time ally Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s ruler, allowing him to be brought down by an uprising orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Read the editorial in The Australian.