Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that President Biden has thrown out the stability in the Middle East that was achieved under the Trump administration by looking to make a new nuclear deal with Iran, the single largest threat in the region.
Pompeo appeared on “Sunday Morning Futures” to address the challenges currently facing the Biden administration ahead of the president’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where some say Biden hopes to seek help in addressing skyrocketing gas prices and confront Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Pompeo said that Biden administration “set the mark” when they made the decision to walk away from the Abraham Accords and go back to the “crazy” Iran nuclear deal, leading to higher American energy prices and making “life worse for every American.”
“The stability that we had built during our four years has now just been squandered and thrown away,” he said. “They’re putting us all at risk.”
Pompeo said that while the Biden administration is hoping to appease Iran, it is possible that the Iranians could shut down the Strait of Hormuz and drive energy prices even higher.
President Biden is slated to make his first trip since taking office to the oil-rich nation of Saudi Arabia in July, with what some observers say is the goal of reducing gasoline prices for consumers and confronting Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
The Biden administration’s attempts to come to a nuclear agreement with Iran may also impact relations between the U.S. and other countries in the region, according to Pompeo.
“When you side with the Iranians, when you side with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, against Israel, and against Saudi Arabia, and against the Emirates,” Pompeo said, “those leaders of those countries no longer have confidence in the United States, and the chance that they’re going to do a solid for Joe Biden is exceedingly low.”
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he believes that Biden has “squandered” stability in the Middle East seeking to reach a new nuclear deal with Iran.
(Rachel Mummey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The former Secretary of State said that while he was “glad” that Biden’s visit recognizes the need for more energy in the marketplace, he questioned why the president had first gone to Iran, Venezuela, and now Saudi Arabia instead of energy producers within the U.S. such as Midland, Texas, and Pennsylvania.
“The President of the United States is going to have to take responsibility and change directions,” Pompeo said. “He shows no signs of doing that. He’d rather lash out and tell the American people, ‘Don’t believe your lying eyes.’”
Gas station prices as seen in New Jersey on June 10.
Despite renewed interest under the Biden administration to reach a new nuclear deal with Iran, discussions have stalled over Iranian demands including the removal of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
The U.S. pulled out of the JCPOA under former President Donald Trump for reasons including the agreement’s limitations on ensuring long term prevention of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon and its failure to address certain issues such as Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer and Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.
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