Rouhani: "Who are you to want to dictate to Iran and the world"

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that Iran halt all uranium enrichment, stop its ballistic-missile program and give nuclear inspectors access to the entire country, in a speech detailing the U.S. approach now that President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear deal.

Pompeo’s list of 12 “basic requirements” if Iran wants relief from punishing sanctions Trump plans to reimpose brought a swift rebuff from Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, who said that it was “unacceptable” for the U.S. to dictate to Iran and the world, and from a top official of the European Union.

The secretary of state’s speech Monday at the Heritage Foundation in Washington gave European leaders little reason to hope Washington will show flexibility in dealing with their companies that want to continue investing in the Islamic Republic.

‘Who are you?’
Rouhani scoffed at the demands from Pompeo, a former congressman who was previously Trump’s CIA director.

“That a man who has spent years working in a spying center, now — in the shoes of the foreign minister of the U.S. — wants to makes decisions for Iran and other countries is in no way acceptable,” Rouhani said, according to the Iranian Students News Agency. “Who are you to want to dictate to Iran and the world, and tell Iran what to do or not to do when it comes to nuclear technology?”

The administration billed the speech, Pompeo’s first policy address as secretary of state, as an articulation of Trump’s new strategy toward Iran less than a month after he ignored the pleas of U.S. allies and withdrew from the nuclear accord. Pompeo essentially demanded Iran’s total submission without offering anything in return aside from the hazy prospect of sanctions relief at some future date.