Mike Pompeo Responds To Soleimani Strike Criticism: 'We Didn't Send Pallets Of Cash To The Iranians'

By
David Rufful
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Secretary Mike Pompeo said the successful military drone strike against terror leader and Iranian general Qassem Soleimani signals a major foreign policy shift between the Trump and Obama administrations.
Pompeo instructed Obama officials criticizing Trump’s decision to “get off the stage.”
“We took a very different approach. We didn’t send pallets of cash to the Iranians. We didn’t pay for hostages. We didn’t create a deal which would have given them a clear pathway to a nuclear weapon,” Pompeo said during an interview on Friday morning on Fox News. “We’ve taken a very different approach and one we believe will ultimately lead to success.”
Speaking with “Fox & Friends,” Pompeo clarified that the decision to take the terrorist leader out was necessary to save American lives in an “imminent attack.”
“President Trump made the decision, a serious decision, which was necessary,” Pompeo said. “There was an imminent attack and the orchestrator and primary motivator for the attack was Soleimani.”
“What was sitting before us, was his travels throughout the region and his efforts to make a significant strike against Americans. Many Muslims would have been killed, many Iraqis and people in other countries as well.
“It was a strike that was aimed at both disrupting stopping that plot, deterring further aggression, and—we hope—setting the conditions for de-escalation as well.
After referencing specific examples of how Iranian forces have attacked Americans or their allies in the Middle East over the last few weeks, Pompeo said: “We watched escalation take place and the restraint President Trump had shown was important and now its the time we take action to restore deterrence.”
“We’ve been planning for this and we’re prepared,” the secretary of state said, speaking of potential Iranian retaliation.
He added: “We’ve made this clear for months since I was the CIA Director, we’ve made very clear that these responses swift and decisive and we’ve now demonstrated that. I hope the Iranian leadership will see the American resolve and that their decision will be to de-escalate and take actions consistent with what normal nations do.”
“In the event they go the other direction, I know that President Trump and the entire United States government is prepared to respond appropriately,” Pompeo said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed these sentiments in a statement on the Senate floor.
“Iran’s master terrorist is dead. The architect and chief engineer of the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism has been removed from the battlefield at the hand of the United States military,” he triumphantly said.