The Iran Action Group was formed on Thursday, 16 August 2018 by
United States Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
Mike Pompeo
Michael Richard Pompeo (; born December 30, 1963) is an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served under President Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2017 to 2018 and as the 70th United State ...
as a dedicated group
to coordinate and run U.S. policy toward
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. Establishment of the group followed the
, the nuclear accord with Iran.
Aims
Pompeo introduced
Brian Hook
Brian H. Hook (born 1968) is an American lawyer and government official. He served as U.S. Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from September 2018 to August 2020. He previously served as the ...
, the Department of State's director of policy planning, as the head of the Group at a news conference on August 16, 2018, with the title of Special Representative for Iran and Senior Advisor to the Secretary.
The head of the Iran Action Group, Brian Hook, mentioned that the United States' new Iran strategy is aimed at protecting America's national security, the security of its allies and partners, and to promote a brighter future for the Iranian people.
Reaction
Iran's state TV described the formation of the Iran Action Group at the US Department of State as "an aggressive policy," and
Fars news agency
The Fars News Agency is a news agency in Iran managed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an armed wing loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. While it describes itself as "Iran's leading independent news agency", it is widely descr ...
(associated with IRGC) named it "the action group against Iran."
According to social scientists who performed searches on international coercion, the group can achieve success "if the U.S. makes its demands clear, imposes costs on Iran that outweigh the benefits of standing firm and clearly and credibly offers a diplomatic off-ramp to end the pressure."
[
The Middle East researcher and journalist, Igor Pankratenko stated that Washington wants to make a profit of economic issues in Iran by causing the disturbance and emboldening local protests while it appears impossible "that the US would be able to convert these demonstrations into political action."]
See also
References
{{Iran–United States relations
Nuclear program of Iran
Iran–United States relations