PAAIA Response to Pompeo’s Speech in Cairo

For Immediate Release:
Contact: Morad Ghorban
Phone: (202) 828-8370
Email: morad@paaia.org

Today, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech at the American University in Cairo, in which he rebuked the previous administration’s strategy in the Middle East and called for a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.” In his speech, Pompeo stated that this new strategy includes counteracting “the Iranian regime’s revolutionary agenda” and joining “the Iranian people in calling for freedom and accountability.” In response, PAAIA issued the following statement:

“While we applaud these goals in principle, the administration needs more than just rhetoric to show their solidarity with the Iranian people. There are concrete steps we can take to support them, such as supporting the Iranian people’s right to censor-free internet by expanding trade exemptions for telecommunication tools in Iran and by establishing safe and secure banking links that would ensure trade exemptions for food and medicine are carried through. Furthermore, the administration’s expressions of unity with the Iranian people ring hollow given that the administration’s Travel Ban policy directly targets the Iranian people. Such a policy is counterproductive to engaging the Iranian people and supporting their democratic aspirations.

“Since 2008, PAAIA’s polling data has consistently shown that, while Iranian Americans want to see the promotion of human rights and democracy in Iran, they prefer to resolve our differences with the government of Iran through diplomacy.  PAAIA continues to support a diplomatic approach to resolving U.S.-Iran differences and believes an unnecessary military confrontation will not serve U.S. interests or support the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.”

January 10, 2019