Pompeo backs Trump's threats to Iran as US braces for possible retaliation

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday backed President Donald Trump's strong threats to Iran as the US braces for potential retaliatory actions by the country following an attack last week by US forces that killed Iran's top military leader.

Posted 2:15 p.m. Jan 5, 2020 — Updated 2:15 p.m. Jan 5, 2020

Devan Cole

, CNN

CNN — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday backed President Donald Trump's strong threats to Iran as the US braces for potential retaliatory actions by the country following an attack last week by US forces that killed Iran's top military leader.

"The American people should know that we will not waver. We will be bold in protecting American interests and we will do so in a way that is consistent with the rule of law," Pompeo told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

He continued: "We're trying to restore deterrence that frankly is a need that results directly from the fact that the previous administration left us in a terrible place with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran ... we have developed a strategy to convince the Iranian regime to behave like a normal nation. That's what our strategy is about. We've been executing it."

The comments from Pompeo come amid dramatically increasing tensions between Tehran and Washington following a series of US attacks in the region, including one last week in Iraq that killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and several others. Though the President has claimed Soleimani was planning attacks on US forces and that the action was taken "to stop a war," he vowed specific military action against Iran if it "strikes any Americans, or American assets."

Trump, in a series of tweets Saturday, said the US has "targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago)," including cultural sites, which "WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD" if the country responds to the death of Soleimani with military force.

On Sunday, the military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader said his country's response to the killing of Soleimani will certainly be a military response "against military sites."

"Let me tell you one thing: Our leadership has officially announced that we have never been seeking war and we will not be seeking war," Hossein Dehghan said in an exclusive interview with CNN.

"It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted. Afterward they should not seek a new cycle," he said.

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