Ahead of Netanyahu-Pompeo meet, Trump’s Iran special envoy rejects claim missile program is defensive, says talks on potential measures ‘gaining traction’

Brian Hook, US special representative for Iran, walks past fragments of Iranian short range ballistic missiles (Qiam) at the Iranian Materiel Display (IMD) at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, in Washington, DC, on November 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Brian Hook, US special representative for Iran, walks past fragments of Iranian short range ballistic missiles (Qiam) at the Iranian Materiel Display (IMD) at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, in Washington, DC, on November 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

 

ABOARD A US MILITARY PLANE (AP) — US President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday urged Europe to impose tough new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program.

The call came as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and European officials in Brussels this week and after the US and others condemned an Iranian missile launch over the weekend.

Iran is expected to be a major topic of conversation when Pompeo meets Netanyahu in Brussels on Monday night. Pompeo also plans to talk about Iran when he meets his counterparts from Britain, France, and Germany, on Tuesday, while he is in Belgium for a meeting of NATO counterparts.

US special envoy for Iran Brian Hook rejected Iran’s insistence that its missile program is defensive.

He told reporters traveling with Pompeo that Iran’s continued missile development and testing is a threat to the region and beyond and in defiance of UN Security Council demands.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks up to the microphones to speak to members of the media, after leaving a closed door meeting about Saudi Arabia, November 28, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks up to the microphones to speak to members of the media, after leaving a closed door meeting about Saudi Arabia, November 28, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

 

Hook said US discussions with the Europeans about missile sanctions are gaining traction. Those talks center on slapping penalties on companies and people involved in Iran’s program.

“It is a grave and escalating threat and nations around the world, not just Europe, need to do everything they can to be targeting Iran’s missile program,” Hook said.

Hook’s comments on Monday were the latest salvo in an escalating US campaign against Iran since Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May.

On Thursday, Hook accused Iran of violating a UN ban on Iranian arms exports by sending weapons to its proxies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.

On Saturday, Pompeo denounced Iran for test-firing a medium range ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple warheads that could reach parts of Europe.

“We are accumulating risk of escalation in the region if we fail to restore deterrence,” Pompeo said.

As reported by The Times of Israel