US President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are longtime supporters of “regime change” in Iran, despite Trump’s recent comments that he is not trying to topple Iran's government, says Rodney Martin, a political analyst in Arizona.
Despite Trump’s recent comments that he is not trying to topple Iran's government, his key advisers “Mike Pompeo and John Bolton for instance have pledged to change and bring down the (1979) Islamic Revolution in Iran,” Martin told Press TV on Thursday.
It’s “very concerning that the United States has not learned from its meddling in Syria, and has not learned from its meddling Iraq,” Martin said.
“Actions speak louder than words and his actions and staffing … with Zionist neocons that are essentially trying to carry out the greater Israel project on behalf of Tel Aviv … should be focused on, not Donald Trump’s words,” he added.
“Because Donald Trump’s words generally mean nothing when it comes to foreign policy or anything else.”
Speaking to cabinet members in Washington Tuesday, Trump claimed a lot of “progress” had been made with Iran and that he was not looking for regime change in Iran.
Trump also implied that Tehran is after building a nuclear bomb.
“They can't have a nuclear weapon. We want to help them. We'll be good to them. We'll work with them. We will help them in any way we can,” Trump claimed. “But, they can't have a nuclear weapon. We're not looking, by the way, for regime change because some people say we're looking for regime change.”
He further accused former US President Barack Obama, a Democrat, of seeking to replace Iran’s government.
“We're not looking for regime change. I've watched President Obama and many other presidents try. That doesn't work out too well. We're not looking for that at all,” the US president claimed.”They can't have a nuclear weapon. They can't be testing ballistic missiles which right now under that agreement, if they had the agreement, which we are out of, they'd be able to do. They can't do that."
The Trump administration’s apparent tendency to negotiate with the Islamic Republic comes after it quit the internationally backed nuclear deal and re-imposed illegal sanctions on Iran, which has responded by reducing its commitments under the agreement.