United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to recent reports regarding Iran’s nuclear activities with a Thursday statement demanding Iran “immediately cooperate” with the international community.
Pompeo pointed to a pair of Tuesday reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency that questioned activity at three suspected covert nuclear weapons facilities in Iran.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 05: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a briefing at the State Department on February 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. Secretary Pompeo spoke on several topics including the coronavirus and the recent truce with the Taliban. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
“Iran is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” Pompeo wrote. “The regime must immediately cooperate with the IAEA and fully comply with its IAEA safeguards obligations. Otherwise, the NPT isn’t worth the paper it is written on.”
Pompeo argued that the new reports are especially concerning “because we know that Iran continues to lie about its past nuclear weapons program and concealed a vast archive of records from those efforts when it concluded the nuclear deal.”
He also said that “the United States remains committed to denying Iran any pathway to a nuclear weapon.”
He additionally pointed to Iran’s “lies about downing a civilian airliner, and its suppression of the extent of its coronavirus outbreak.”
Iran, like many countries around the globe, has failed to stop the coronavirus outbreak from escalating within its own borders. Nearly 10 percent of Iranian lawmakers have contracted COVID-19, and one of the top advisers to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Expediency Council member Mohammed Mirmohammadi, succumbed to the virus Monday. (RELATED: Adviser To Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei Dies From The Coronavirus)
“The international community must speak clearly and with one voice,” Pompeo wrote in closing. “Full and transparent cooperation with the IAEA and compliance with the NPT is the only path forward for Iran.”