March 15, 2019
Vice President Mike Pence has further driven US-Europe relations into a deep hole with a speech in Poland on Iran that sounded like it was written by President Trump himself with the express goal of infuriating Europeans.
It also infuriated Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, though he said nothing publicly. But The New York Times reported that it was told Pompeo had almost wrapped up an agreement with Europe to impose sanctions on Iran for its missile program—until Pence’s rhetoric drove everyone away.
Pence spoke at a meeting the United States had organized last month in Warsaw. Originally, it was to be solely to mobilize opposition to Iran. But that disgusted US allies and Washington then agreed the meeting should discuss everything in the Middle East.
But Pence’s Iran-is-the-fount-of-all-evil speech went overboard.
One reporter said he had seen a different and more moderate speech draft, suggesting the White House had drafted the speech that Pence actually gave. The speech sounded like a White House product with 18 references to Trump—starting in the second sentence and including such Trumpian rhetoric as: “Since Day One, President Trump has restored American leadership on the world stage.”
The middle of the speech was a long tirade against the Islamic Republic—a tirade that wasn’t restrained by basic facts. Pence said, “The Ayatollah Khamenehi himself has said, ‘It is the mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to erase Israel from the map’.” The quote marks appeared in the text published by the White House. But Khamenehi has never said any such thing. The standard phrase, in literal translation, is: “Israel must be eliminated from the page of existence.” It never says who will do the eliminating and always avoids saying Iran will do it.
Pence went on: “The Iranian regime openly advocates another Holocaust,” which is false. “Iran seeks to recreate the ancient Persian Empire under the modern dictatorship of the ayatollahs.”
The speech also included a Trump-like slash at the Obama Administration, which is fine for domestic speeches, but American officials before Trump have always adhered to the rule not to take partisan matters into other countries. The Pence text, however said, “The previous administration’s desire for peace at any price drove them to strike a devil’s bargain with our common enemy,” a reference to the nuclear agreement.
The speech even went out of its ways to offend Europe. Pence mentioned the EU plan to provide a means for trade with Iran. “They call this scheme a Special Purpose Vehicle,” Pence said. “We call it an effort to break American sanctions against Iran’s murderous revolutionary regime.”
He then got to the meat of his speech: “The time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and join with us as we bring the economic and diplomatic pressure necessary to give the Iranian people, the region and the world, the peace, security and freedom they deserve.”
That appears to have driven the final nail into the coffin of any Europe-US cooperation on Iran. In the month since the February 14 speech, the Europeans have simply turned silent on Iran.
Most European countries, including Germany, refused to send their foreign ministers to what they expected would be a Trump propaganda fest. After Pence spoke, Niels Annen, the German deputy foreign minister sent to the conference, explained where Germany—and basically the rest of Europe—stood. He said Germany believes the world needs both to adhere to the nuclear deal and to bring more pressure on Iran. “We believe we need both. We need pressure on Iran…. But we also need cooperation on the basis of this international agreement.”
In Washington, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who, as speaker of the House, is the senior Democrat in public office, said, “The vice president is an articulate spokesperson for his point of view, which, I think, on the subject of Iran, is completely wrong.”