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Pompeo will tackle Iran with diplomacy

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US President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State told US lawmakers on Thursday that he would prioritise fixing “the flaws” in the Iran nuclear deal through diplomatic channels.

Outgoing CIA chief Mike Pompeo, a strong opponent of the nuclear deal, was speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at his confirmation hearing when he said his view “is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon through diplomacy”.

US sanctions that were lifted under the 2015 agreement will resume unless  Trump waives them again on 12 May. Trump has effectively set that as a deadline for European signatories of the nuclear deal to “fix the terrible flaws”in the agreement. He has said these flaws include the failure to ban ballistic missile testing, the lack of full access to Iran’s military sites and the deal’s expiration date.

Pompeo told the committee that “if there’s no chance that we can’t fix it, we will work with our allies to achieve a better deal”, adding that “I’ve seen no evidence that [Iran] are not in compliance [with the nuclear deal] today”. Pompeo also said Iran was not “racing” to develop a nuclear weapon before the deal was finalised, and that he did not expect it would do so if the deal were to fall apart.

Trump says Iran is violating “the spirit of the agreement” through its continued support for terrorist groups and other policies in the region.

For the second time this week a senior figure close to Iran’s Supreme Leader’s threatened Israel. Yesterday Ali Shirazi, a senior adviser and envoy to the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force unit said: “If Israel wants to continue its treacherous existence … it should avoid stupid measures. If they give excuses to Iran, Tel Aviv and Haifa will be destroyed.

Tensions between Israel and Iran remain high after the T-4 military airbase in Syria was attacked six days ago and resulted in the death of 14 combatants, half of whom were Iranian. Russia has accused Israel of the attack, which it claimed “worsened stability” in Syria.

Israel has not commented on the strike but yesterday a senior diplomat said: “What is destabilising Syria is the Iranian aggression and attempts by Iran to set up a military presence in Syria to threaten Israel and other nations.”