June 16, 2017
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis says the Islamic Republic is looking out for the best interests of the Islamic Republic—but not the best interests of the Iranian people.
“Face the Nation” host John Dickerson asked the retired Marine Corp general, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, if he still stands by comments he made in 2011, when he ranked Iran as his top priority while he was the head of US Central Command under President Obama.
“I had a narrower portfolio in those days,” Mattis said. “And in the US Central Region, what we find is wherever there are challenges, wherever there is chaos, wherever there is violence, whether it be in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, the attempts to unsettle Bahrain. We always find Iran and the IRGC [Pasdaran] at it.”
“It’s not the Iranian people,” Mattis said. “We are convinced it’s a regime that is conducting itself in order to stay in power in Tehran as a revolutionary regime, not as a proper nation-state. They are not looking out for the best interests of their own people.”
On the topic of Iran’s overall international threat, Mattis resurrected the story of the 2011 assassination plot against Saudi Ambassador to the US Adel al-Jubeir by an Iranian-American with close links to the Qods Force.
“You have got this revolutionary cause that causes them to then go around creating mischief everywhere, to include trying to murder an Arab ambassador fewer than two miles from the White House a couple years ago,” Mattis said.
He continued: “And I’ve seen the intelligence. This was not a rogue agent. This was an operation approved at the highest levels. And so, you know, ambassadors are men and women of peace. And for someone to try to murder an ambassador in Washington, DC, you can understand why President Obama was committed to stopping the nuclear program.”
Iran is believed to have been involved in several assassination attempts against Saudi diplomats during 1989-1990 including the killings of four Saudi diplomats in Thailand: Abdullah Al-Maliki, Abdullah Al-Basri, Fahd Al-Bahli and Ahmad Al-Saif.
