Pompeo Seeks to Flood Region with Even More US Arms: Zarif

“Outlaw [Mike] Pompeo has no qualms about violating his own country’s laws,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet on Monday.

“Standing next to the World’s number one nuclear threat, he declares his desire to flood our region with even more US weapons — all while trying to impede lawful normalization of Iran‘s defence cooperation with the world,” Zarif added.

His comments came after Pompeo said following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem al-Quds that the US will find a way to balance helping its military ally, the United Arab Emirates, without weakening Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME).

Pompeo’s remarks came amid controversy over whether the US will sell F-35 stealth jets to Abu Dhabi, after the Emirati officials unveiled their plan to totally normalize their country’s relations with Israel.

In his Monday tweet, Zarif shed more light on the US administration’s plan to sell more weapons to the West Asian countries by mentioning a July 24 article by the New York Times in which the prestigious American daily had revealed the Trump administration’s plan to sell “large armed drones” to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The New York Times noted that the Trump administration’s decision has been opposed internally by arms control officials and lawmakers trying to limit the proliferation of such drones, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE.