List of US Demands Testifies to Iran’s Growing Clout: IRGC

A senior IRGC commander says the list of US demands declared by the newly-appointed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies to Tehran’s growing clout, showing Washington has been frustrated with keeping Iran in check.

Speaking Monday night, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the lieutenant commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said Iran is now so powerful that the US secretary asks it to end its presence in the region.

“This means we cannot [push Iran out] and the country itself should end its presence,” he said, according to a report by IRNA.

“Enemies cannot do anything but to impose sanctions,” Salami said, adding that Iran is wealthy country that cannot be isolated.

Iran’s adversaries have spared no chance since the 1979 Islamic Revolution to curb Iran’s influence in the region.

In a follow up to the early March withdrawal of the US from the nuclear deal, Pompeo last week threatened to impose the “strongest sanctions in history” against Iran that would ultimately destroy Iran’s economy unless it capitulated to a series of 12 “basic requirements”.

The list asks Tehran to halt its missile development, stop what the US believes are Iran’s interventions in the affairs of Iraq, Syria and Yemen and cease support for groups which the US considers terrorist but Iran sees as legitimate resistance forces.

IFP Editorial Staff

The IFP Editorial Staff is composed of dozens of skilled journalists, news-writers, and analysts whose works are edited and published by experienced editors specialized in Iran News. The editor of each IFP Service is responsible for the report published by the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website, and can be contacted through the ways mentioned in the "IFP Editorial Staff" section.