

Pompeo urges Iranian protesters to send him videos so that US can ‘expose & sanction’ Tehran for alleged abuses

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made an appeal in Farsi to protesters in Iran, asking them to share photos and videos exposing abuses. Pompeo apparently hopes to use the footage to justify more sanctions on Tehran.

“I have asked the Iranian protestors to send us their videos, photos, and information documenting the regime’s crackdown on protestors. The US will expose and sanction the abuses,” Pompeo wrote in a tweet.

He called for the same in a separate message in Farsi, where he addressed “brave Iranian protesters” who are taking part in demonstrations, sparked by anger over rising fuel costs. The United States will use the material to “publicly condemn the persecution of protesters,” the senior US diplomat added.

Iran shut down the internet as protests became more widespread, prompting accusations that the government was trying to prevent evidence of abuse from spreading online. Tehran and at least one province had its internet restored on Friday, according to state media.

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Tehran has dismissed Washington’s self-professed solidarity with the protesters as cynical and hypocritical. Pointing to the harsh sanctions unilaterally imposed by the US, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif argued earlier this week that “the regime that imposes coercive economic actions and bars delivery of food and drugs to the elderly and patients, can never claim that it’s supporting the Iranian nation.”

He called on Pompeo to take responsibility for the “terrorist actions and crimes against humanity” committed by the United States against the Islamic Republic.

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