Zarif Tells Pompeo: Wherever US Goes, Chaos Follows

Local Editor

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif countered US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's claims that "when America retreats, chaos often follows," saying actually the opposite is true.

“Whenever/wherever US interferes, chaos, repression, and resentment follow,” Zarif wrote on his Twitter account on Thursday in response to Pompeo's remarks in Egypt which raised eyebrows in the United States and abroad.

Pompeo described the US as a “force for good” in the Middle East in a speech at the American University in Cairo, which contradicted US President Donald Trump's announcement last month to pull troops out of the region.

Pompeo accused former US president Barack Obama of having sowed chaos by abandoning the Middle East.

“We learned that when America retreats, chaos often follows. When we neglect our friends, resentment builds. And when we partner with our enemies, they advance,” he said.

“The good news is this: The age of self-inflicted American shame is over. And so are the policies that produced so much needless suffering. Now comes the real new beginning,” Pompeo added.

Trump last month announced that he had ordered staff to execute the "full" and "rapid" withdrawal of US military from Syria. While that decision’s timing is unclear, it is widely seen as abandoning the region.

Pompeo, however, said the US withdrawal from Syria was not "a change of mission."

Earlier on Thursday, Zarif tweeted, “The day Iran mimics US clients & @SecPompeo’s ‘human rights models’ — be it the Shah or current butchers — to become a ‘normal’ country is the day hell freezes over. Best for the US to just get over loss of Iran.”

Iran was a key ally of the US in the Middle East before the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy led by Mohammad Reza Shah.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team