BRUSSELS (AP)
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday pressed European nations to get tough on Iran by cutting off all funding the country may use to foment instability in the Middle East and beyond.
Pompeo was meeting with European officials in Brussels following a summit of NATO leaders to make the case for clamping down on Iranian "terrorism and proxy wars." He urged them to join a U.S.-led economic pressure campaign against Tehran that began in earnest after President Donald Trump withdrew from the landmark Iran nuclear deal in May.
"We ask our allies and partners to join our economic pressure campaign against Iran's regime," Pompeo said in a tweet ahead of his talks. "We must cut off all funding the regime uses to fund terrorism and proxy wars. There's no telling when Iran may try to foment terrorism, violence & instability in one of our countries next." The tweet was accompanied by a map accusing Iran of sponsoring at least 11 terrorist attacks in Europe since 1978.
In another post, he said "Iran continues to send weapons across the Middle East, in blatant violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Iran's regime wants to start trouble wherever it can. It's our responsibility to stop it."
His comments came as other U.S. officials have fanned out around the globe to warn foreign governments to stop buying oil from Iran or face sanctions and after he accused Iran of using its embassies to plot terrorist attacks in Europe.
"Just this past week there were Iranians arrested in Europe who were preparing to conduct a terror plot in Paris, France. We have seen this malign behavior in Europe," Pompeo said in an interview on Tuesday with Sky News Arabia in Abu Dhabi.
He was referring to the arrest of an Iranian diplomat posted to Vienna who was allegedly involved in the plot to bomb an Iranian opposition group rally in France on June 30. The envoy's arrest in Germany came after a couple with Iranian roots was stopped in Belgium and authorities reported finding powerful explosives in their car.
Iran denies involvement and contends the allegations against its diplomat are intended to damage its relations with the European Union.
The diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, was charged in Germany on Wednesday with activity as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit murder.
He is suspected of contracting a couple in Belgium to attack an annual meeting of an exiled Iranian opposition group in Villepinte, near Paris, German prosecutors said. He allegedly gave the Antwerp-based couple a device containing 500 grams of the explosive TATP during a meeting in Luxembourg in late June, prosecutors said in a written statement.
Belgian authorities also accuse Assadi of being part of the alleged plot reportedly aimed at setting off explosives at a huge annual rally of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq group, or MEK, in neighboring France, and want him extradited.
The MEK is an exiled Iranian opposition group based near Paris with some members in Albania. The formerly armed group was removed from European Union and U.S. terrorism lists several years ago after denouncing violence and getting western politicians to lobby on its behalf.