U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the U.S. government’s tough anti-Iran message to an international meeting of officials from more than 60 countries in Warsaw, Poland to discuss peace and security in the Middle East. RFE/RL’s Iranian Service, Radio Farda, was in Warsaw to provide audiences in Iran in-depth reporting and groundbreaking interviews with top U.S. and world leaders.
Speaking to Radio Farda, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected as "outrageous" claims by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that the United States and its regional allies are to blame for a suicide bombing in southeastern Iran on February 13 that killed 27 members of the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. In noting the “historic” nature of the Warsaw meeting, Pompeo said while the Trump administration’s goal of a change in Iran’s behavior is clear, “How these behaviors will be changed will be dealt with by the Iranian people. They'll make their voices heard. They'll assert their power.”
On February 13, Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who is a personal lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, told an RFE/RL journalist on the sidelines of the Warsaw meeting that he believes “there has to be an overthrow” of Iran's “theocratic dictatorship.” Giuliani’s comments to RFE/RL were picked up by Politico.
Earlier, on February 9, Prince Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last monarch, said in an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Farda that he thinks "we are really close to the fall of the [Iranian] regime," and urged foreign governments “to open a passage of dialogue with the secular-democratic opposition” that he believes “represents the majority of Iranians.”
For the latest Radio Farda news reports in English, visit https://en.radiofarda.com/
RFE/RL and Radio Farda journalists are available for comment and insight on Iran:
- Mehdi Parpanchi, Radio Farda Director (English, Persian)
ParpanchiM@rferl.org -- mob: +420.606.041.689 -- Twitter: RadioFarda_Eng
- Niusha Boghrati, Radio Farda Chief Editor (English, Persian)
BoghratiM@rferl.org -- mob: +420.725.847.769 -- Facebook: radio.farda
- Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL Senior Correspondent (English, Persian)
esfandiarig@rferl.org -- desk: +420.221.123.628 -- Twitter: @gesfandiari
To schedule an interview with any of RFE/RL's experts, contact Muhammad Tahir (tahirm@rferl.org; +1.202.740.0603) in Washington, or Joanna Levison (levisonj@rferl.org; +420.602.312.705) in Prague.
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