New York, July 30 (RHC)-- It is clear that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has “ulterior motives” for traveling to Iran and being interviewed by Iranian news media, according to political analysts in the U.S. capital.
On Thursday, July 25, Pompeo said he was willing to go to Iran for talks amid tensions between Tehran and Washington. Asked if he would be willing to go to Tehran, Pompeo said in an interview with Bloomberg TV: “Sure. If that’s the call, I’d happily go there... I would welcome the chance to speak directly to the Iranian people.”
Some independent observers have said that Pompeo is actually not very interested in speaking with the Iranian people, but actually is concerned by the way Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is presenting Iran’s case on the American media to the U.S. public.
They say Pompeo wants to counter Zarif by pushing the idea of travelling to Tehran and speaking to the Iranian media which has suffered several restrictions in the United States. Washington has also pressured social media giants to block Iranian media channels on YouTube and Google.
According to critics, Pompeo thinks it’s an opportunity to score some propaganda points, probably seeing that this would provide him with a forum in which he could possibly influence the Iranian people.” Other observers say that the offer to meet could be a bluff; he may also be trying to present himself as somehow being open-minded and open to negotiations.
“Now, we know from looking at the behavior of the Trump administration in recent times, we know that the Pompeo and Bolton wing of the Trump administration has continually pushed for more and more aggression by the United States against Iran.”
In other news, the CEO of Iran's English-speaking Press TV channel says the news outlet has no plan to hold an interview with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after the latter indicated his interest to do so.
Peyman Jebelli, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s deputy head and the CEO of IRIB’s World Service said in an interview on Sunday: “We have neither made a request to have an interview [with Pompeo], nor have any plan to arrange an interview with U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo.”
Jebelli’s remarks came after Ali Rabiei, the spokesman for the Iranian administration, said in his weekly press conference earlier in the day that if Pompeo is willing to talk to Iranian reporters, he can have an interview with Press TV correspondent and anchor, Marziyeh Hashemi, who was detained by the U.S. government on baseless grounds during a visit to meet with her family in the United States in January 2019.
Hashemi, a 59-year-old American-born Muslim convert who has lived in Iran for years, was detained at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in Missouri on January 13th while in the U.S. to visit her ill brother and other family members.
