Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday when asked about President Donald Trump’s threat to attack Iranian heritage sites that Tehran’s actions have done more to harm that country’s culture than anything the United States has done.
“Let me tell you who has done damage to the Persian culture. It’s not the United States of America, it’s the ayatollah,” Pompeo said, referring to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in response to a question from NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Andrea Mitchell at a State Department press conference. “If you want to look at who has denied religious freedom. … Persian culture is rich and steeped in history and intellect, and they’ve denied the capacity for that culture to continue.”
“The real risk to Persian culture does not come from the United States of America,” Pompeo added.
In remarks to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night, Trump suggested the United States could attack Iranian cultural sites if Iran retaliates for the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, one of the country’s top military and intelligence officials.
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“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural sites. It doesn’t work that way,” Trump said.
The president’s comments came after he posted a vaguely worded tweet that said the United States would attack 52 Iranian sites following any retaliation from Tehran. International laws prohibit attacks on cultural sites.
In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the suggestion that the U.S. military would target cultural sites a “war crime” in his own Twitter response on Sunday.
At Monday’s press conference, Pompeo said that the administration will work within international law when responding to a potential attack from Iran.
“Every target that’s being reviewed, every effort that is being made will always be conducted inside the international laws of war,” he said. “I have worked on this project and I’m very confident of that.”
Pompeo also reiterated his defense that classified American intelligence showed Soleimani was involved in planning an imminent attack on Americans.
“It was the right decision,” the secretary said. “We got it right.”
Pompeo also called Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif “a propagandist of the first order” after the Iranian leader reportedly said Soleimani was traveling to Baghdad on a diplomatic mission with Iraqi officials.
“We know that wasn’t true. We not only know the history, we know in that moment that was not true,” Pompeo said. “It’s not new, we have heard the same lies before. It’s fundamentally false; he was not there on a diplomatic mission trying to resolve a problem.”
