Guard Commander: Pompeo Deserves Punch for Iran Sanctions Threat

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo deserves a punch in the mouth for threatening to impose "the strongest sanctions in history" on Iran, senior Revolutionary Guard commander Ismail Kowsari declared, the Daily Mail reported on Tuesday.

Pompeo said on Monday, two weeks after President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iranian nuclear deal, that the U.S. would enact new penalties against the Islamic Republic unless Tehran met a list of 12 demands, including dropping its nuclear program, halting its ballistic missile technology and pulling out of the Syrian civil war.

"Who are you and America to tell us to limit the range of ballistic missiles," Kowsari taunted, adding that "History has shown that with the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, America is the top criminal with regard to missiles."

The Revolutionary Guard was created after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the ruling clerical establishment and is answerable to the supreme leader, according to NBC News.

In his speech declaring American policy, Pompeo said the U.S. is pursuing a larger Iran agreement and asking for the backing of allies beyond Europe, such as Australia, Japan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

But international affairs analyst Bobby Ghosh told MSNBC that "The trouble with this is that you have no partners going into the negotiation. People with whom you were previously partners are now very, very upset... and the other side it is not clear that they have any real incentive."

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also said the U.S. approach would be a tough sell, telling reporters during a trip to Argentina that "The idea of a jumbo Iran treaty [is] very difficult."

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