Special Envoy to Iran Brian Hook blasted the Iranian regime accusing the regime of being a “Marxist theocracy” responsible for backing many of the world’s terrorist organizations.
In an interview with Radio Farda on Friday, Hook responded to questions regarding the State Department’s recent fact sheet it published about the nation, which stated that Iran had conducted more than 360 assassinations, terrorist plots, and terrorist attacks in more than 40 countries on five continents across the globe. Hook also accused Iran of using its diplomats of conducting assassinations and terrorist attacks.
“Iran’s diplomats are agents of terror, and they conducted multiple assassinations and bomb plots all over the world. They conducted acts of terrorism on five continents,” Hook said in the interview, later adding that the rest of the world was on the United States side.
“I do not think anybody’s happy with the regime’s regional aggression and hostage-taking. And you have seen European nations, especially the permanent members of the UN Security Council, France, and the United Kingdom, repeatedly condemn Iran for terrorism, ballistic missile testing, missile proliferation, terror finance, and money laundering,” he said.
Under President Donald Trump, the United States has taken a stronger stance against the Iranian regime, implementing a number of sanctions against the nation since Trump became president, an action which the European Union followed to a lesser degree, according to Hook.
“The European Union imposed sanctions on Iran’s intelligence service, because of the assassination attempts and bomb plots in Europe,” Hook said. “I wish the European Union would also put sanctions on what Iran is doing inside the Middle East. But if you look at the time this regime came to power in 1979, it has been implicated in assassinations and other terrorist plots in more than forty countries. That’s just extraordinary.”
Hook also touted the success the sanctions are having against Iran, saying that the nation is weaker and poorer from them. More importantly, Hook noted, Iran is not as close to developing a nuclear weapon as they once were.
“Iran doesn’t have the money anymore that it used to, to keep its proxies rich and to keep the regime’s elite rich. So, we have been able to affect a change in the regime’s behavior simply by denying its revenue. And we have amassed a lot of leverage against the regime, and that leverage is going to be necessary to accomplish the kind of deal we’re talking about. We need to get to zero enrichment. Countries that want peaceful nuclear power do not need to enrich,” he said.
Hook added: “We also need to do something about Iran’s ballistic missiles testing and missile proliferation; all of its hostage-taking and attacking its neighbors. And we believe that our diplomacy will be able to accomplish that result.”
Asked what he would say in response to Iran accusing the United States of “lying,” “conspiracy” and “fabrication” to start a new round of “psychological war” and “exerting pressure” on Tehran, Hook simply dismissed the charges as propaganda.
“We do not pay a lot of attention to the propaganda machine that comes outside of Tehran. This is a Marxist-theocratic regime that peddles in falsehoods and lies,” he said.
“For forty-one years now the Iranian people are tired of it, the international community is tired of it. When we put out our fact sheet, we can back-up everything in it. And the only thing that Iran really has is complaints that this is a psychological operation. But, when you look at so many people who lost their lives because of Iranian violence; I think everybody who has fallen victim to Iranian terrorism around the world understands the truth.”
