Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: Biden administration again has extended government protection to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and one of his top Iran aides due to persistent threats against them from Iran.
In separate notices sent to Congress the previous week, the State Department said that the threats to Pompeo and Brian Hook remained “serious or credible.” Brian served as the Trump administration’s special envoy for Iran.
Public face of US “maximum pressure” campaign
According to AP, along with Pompeo, Brian was the public face of the US “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran after President Donald Trump’s decision in 2018 to withdraw from Iran nuclear deal. Iran also blamed both men for the US assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020 and vowed revenge.
The Jan. 5 notifications to Congress make a 10th time the State Department extended protection to Brian since he left office in January 2021 and a seventh time it has been extended to Pompeo. A discrepancy arises because Pompeo, as a former Cabinet secretary, automatically government security for many months after leaving office.
The notifications, obtained by The Associated Press, signed by Acting Deputy Secretary of State John Bass.
“I at this moment determine that specific threat concerning the former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo persists,” Bass wrote. AP reported in March 2022 that the State Department was paying more than $2 million per month to provide 24-hour security to Pompeo and Brian. The latest determinations have not given a dollar amount for the protection.
Even as the Biden administration has made those determinations and spent money for Pompeo and Brian’s protection, it has continued to press ahead with indirect talks with Iran aimed at salvaging the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from in 2018.
