WASHINGTON, DC — Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and two generals who at one time led NATO have expressed their support for Iranians dedicated to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, even though they disapprove of the involvement of American troops.
Pompeo was allegedly targeted for assassination by associates linked to the Islamic regime in retaliation for his role in the 2020 drone strike ordered by former President Donald Trump. The strike killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Pompeo was joined by Gens. Wesley Clark and James Jones, who spoke before a gathering of supporters of the Iranian resistance organization National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, formerly the Trump International Hotel, in Washington, D.C., on March 9.
The program opened with a live video address by NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi, who cited the last several years of protests and the low turnout in this month’s national elections as indicative of the theocratic rulers’ weakness.
“The people’s uprisings and the September 2022 uprising, along with thousands of anti-repression acts and operations by Resistance Units in most Iranian provinces, as well as the recent nationwide boycott of the sham elections, show that the regime’s overthrow is within reach,” said Rajavi.
Following Rajavi, Pompeo took the podium at the hotel convention hall. Pompeo opened with a light-hearted dig at the current administration by calling the event venue by its old name, “Trump International.” But his comments also served to point out that support for overthrowing the clerical rulers of Iran enjoyed at least some bipartisan support. Pompeo placed blame for the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel squarely on Iran, saying that neither Israel nor the Palestinians were to blame for what he considered a proxy for the Islamic Republic of Iran in Hamas.
Pompeo expressed the sentiment that the regime’s downfall was an inevitability of the Iranian people’s yearning for freedom.
“Down with the oppressor, be it the Shah or the Supreme Leader,” he said.
However, Pompeo drew a line against “U.S. boots on the ground,” which all the other speakers who followed would echo.
Gen. Clark, who commanded NATO forces during the Clinton administration and who himself ran for president of the U.S. as a Democrat, endorsed the NCRI as a virtual government in exile. He claimed that the NCRI could usher in a new government for Iran without a violent revolution.
Gen. Clark spoke with The Dallas Express and addressed the concerns of the America First movement, which is suspicious of what it considers too many foreign entanglements.
“It’s not even enough to have a border wall to prevent people from coming across that border,” he said. “To keep America secure, we have to reach beyond our borders … in trying to stabilize the world so that American business and American citizens can be safe at home and abroad.”
Speaking specifically about the government of Iran, Gen. Clark told DX, “The government of Iran is a major source of instability and conflict in the region. They’ve killed Americans with impunity. And for 40 years, American governments have tried to get along with them and hope that the government of Iran would change. But leopards don’t change their spots, and the government of Iran cannot be appeased out of its terrorist policies.”
“We should use all of our economic and legal means to delegitimize this ayatollah’s government in Iran and help the Iranian people bring real democracy,” Clark added.
The general emphasized that, in his view, the NCRI was entirely self-sufficient and would not need a dime from the U.S. He only beseeched policymakers in the U.S. government to “make sure we’re not appeasing people who ultimately aim to destroy our own country” which he claimed the Iranian government aims to do with nuclear weapons.
DX also caught up with former NATO commander Gen. Jones after he spoke in support of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), the anti-cleric resistance group that was once based in Iraq.
Gen. Jones noted with regret that Iran’s influence in Iraq only grew after the U.S. overthrew Saddam Hussein’s government, which eventually caused the PMOI camp in Iraq to come under attack by Iraqis aligned with the Iranian government.
He attributed this to the U.S. committing three mistakes: announcing that the U.S. would not be “nation building” in Iraq, leaving an obvious opening for Iranian influence; allowing Nouri Maliki, who was essentially loyal to Iran, to become prime minister of Iraq; and pulling out of the country recklessly, “which kind of created this chaos and [caused] tragedies with the MEK” bases as they came under attack without U.S. troops’ protection.
