Mike Pompeo headlines Iran opposition summit as he eyes 2024 run

Pompeo is thought to be among Republicans most likely to launch White House bids

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headlined a summit in support of an "uprising" in Iran, including the ongoing protests, as he works to retain his prominence in conservative circles ahead of 2024.

The summit was held on Saturday in Washington. Mr Pompeo’s attendance comes as the former Trump Cabinet member has shown zero signs of halting or slowing his presidential ambitions following his former boss’s announcement that he will seek the White House again.

Those ambitions could be blunted by Mr Trump’s own, or they could instead result in Mr Pompeo seeing himself become the replacement for Mike Pence on Mr Trump’s ticket, a position open thanks to Mr Pence’s adherence to the Constitution on January 6. Theoretically, he could even be a contender for the nomination itself should Mr Trump’s bid self destruct and the former secretary finds a way to be competitive against other more prominent Republicans like Ron DeSantis.

The former secretary of state was in clear campaign mode on Saturday during his address to the Organization of Iranian American Communities; he was quick to tout the Trump administration’s hawkish stance against Iran and withdrawal from the Iran deal, two areas he helped spearhead both at the State Department and his previous tenure as CIA director. Mr Pompeo spoke glowingly of his record working against the Iranian government at both institutions.

Mike Pompeo speaks to supporters of the 2022 Iranian uprising at a summit in Washington DC (OIAC)

”Our administration used every tool at our disposal to level and eliminate power from the [Iranian] regime,” said Mr Pompeo. “While I can’t say too much about my work while I was the Central Intelligence Agency’s director, you should know that our cooperation with allied nations to reduce its external capabilities had real impact on [the regime’s] abilty to foment terror.”

But the former secretary addressed a wide range of other topics in his lengthy remarks to the summit on Saturday, including his support for the growing and surprisingly persistent protests that have rocked Iran now for several months.

“Our approach began in the idea that the Iranian people must be supported in every way,” he claimed. “It’s important for the Iranian people to understand that this is not a partisan issue. It matters to every American.”

Mr Pompeo added of the demonstrations, which have occurred in Tehran and numerous other towns and cities: "Three months of powerful unyielding protests and uprisings don’t happen randomly. They’re not the product of foreign meddling. The regime loves to lie and say that it is so. These protests are the result of 40 years of organized opposition.”

Those protests have attracted growing support in Washington from all sectors of the DC political sphere thanks to the strong popularity of any internal resistance against the Iranian government not to mention the explicitly feminist tone of the demonstrators, who have rallied in support of a woman who was killed in police custody following her detention for wearing a headcovering improperly.

Support for the protests and a round of sanctions targeting the Iranian state security officials responsible for the resulting crackdown has thus far been mostly the extent of Washington’s response to the freeze that has essentially ended negotiations over resuming the Iran nuclear deal, a priority of President Joe Biden’s.

In the coming weeks those sanctions could escalate or the administration could even take further action and issue a statement in direct support of Iranians’ desires to overthrow their government - a move that is strongly desired by the OIAC and related groups but would almost certainly sour relations with officials in Tehran for years to come, assuming that the regime survives this latest challenge.

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, called for as much in her own remarks delivered Saturday to the assembled group of ex-US officials at the summit and stated that "the time has come for the United States to recognize the legitimacy of the fight of the Iranian youths against this evil and terrorist force.”

Maryam Rajavi speaks to supporters of the 2022 Iranian uprising at a summit in Washington DC (OIAC)

“The US should officially recognize the Iranian people's Revolution to establish a republic based on democratic values. Embassies and institutions affiliated with the regime that provide support for repression inside Iran must be shut down. Any form of negotiation and making concessions to the criminal rulers of Iran should be stopped," Ms Rajavi declared.

"It is time for western governments to change their policy toward Iran. They should recognize the Iranian people’s right to resist and defend themselves against the brutal repression of the religious dictatorship," she said.