Pompeo Goes Full Trump Nuclear on NPR Reporter

NPR full transcript

In an interview on Friday with All Things Considered co-host Mary Louise Kelly, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took questions about U.S. policy in Iran and about the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

Mary Louise Kelly: Secretary of State, good to see you.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: Good to be with you. Thanks for having me on the show.

Let’s start with Iran. What is the plan? And on diplomacy, specifically, is there any serious initiative to reopen diplomacy with Iran?

So we’ve been engaged in deep diplomatic efforts since the first day of the Trump administration. We’ve built out a coalition that is working together — Gulf states, Israel, many European countries — to deliver on the three central outcomes that we’re looking for.

But in terms of U.S. engagement with Iran, is there any talks underway, any plan for talks?

You know, we never talk about private conversations that are taking place, but the diplomatic effort on this front has been vigorous, robust and enormously successful. We built out a significant coalition that has put pressure on the Iranian regime to do what we’ve asked: to cease its processing of uranium, reprocessing of plutonium, to stop its missile program and the development of its missile program.