Pompeo blames Biden ‘appeasement’ for Iran’s expanding aggression in speech to Tehran opposition

Rising levels of global violence are helping to highlight the rogue and destabilizing role that Iran plays on the world stage, supporters of the main Iranian opposition movement declared Saturday.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, retired Generals Wesley Clark and Jim Jones, and Robert Joseph, under-secretary of state for arms control and international security, spoke Saturday at a Washington hotel at an event hosted by the Organization of Iranian American Communities.

Maryam Rajavi, head of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, best known as MEK, also spoke at the event via video link. 

The event also showcased commentary from multiple Iranian women who stood in opposition to the ruling class in the country, a homage to International Women’s Day, which took place Friday. The video of the women blurred their faces out of fear they could face reprisals from Iranian authorities. 

The summit, entitled the “A Free Iran: Solution to Warmongering & Terror, Internal Repression,” took place days after controversial elections in Iran, which some analysts have said may have shown a weakening of the Iranian regime’s hold on power in the country.  

It also comes amid heightened violence in the Red Sea -- the U.S. and its allies shot down dozens of Houthi drones in the area on Saturday -- and new tensions between Israel and Hamas as the Muslim Ramadan month of religious fasting is set to begin.  

Both the Houthi rebels and Hamas are considered prominent Iran proxies.  

The violence also takes place as new levels of collaboration are revealed between Iran and Russia amid the later country’s war with Ukraine.  

“The last time I spoke [to MEK supporters] was last Oct. 6, just before the Hamas attacks on Israel,” Pompeo said in his remarks. “I warned then that continued appeasement of the regime would embolden it and cause terrible consequences.

“Tehran continues … to project power throughout the region, and we want the opposite,” Pompeo added, referring to the Iranian capital. “It is orchestrating conflicts in Israel and the Red Sea. Tehran is the head of the snake.”

In his address to the conference, Clark, a former Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, said that MEK and Iranians themselves posed the greatest threat to the ruling ayatollahs in Iran. 

“Iran’s own citizens pose the greatest threat to the ayatollahs and are the key to peace and stability in the region,” Clark said. “Mrs. Maryam Rajavi and the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the MEK have proven over the years that they have the power to unseat the regime.” 

The ayatollahs have ruled Iran since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, when they overthrew the country’s shah with the help of MEK. But the two sides split in 1981 and since then the organization has been a leading opposition voice.  

The event on Saturday took place at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in the District of Columbia, which between 2016 and 2022 was known as the Trump International Hotel.