Intel: Pompeo urges Europe to join Iran pressure campaign in G-7 teleconference

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today used a teleconference of foreign ministers of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations to urge tougher international action on Iran and its regional proxies in line with the US maximum pressure campaign.

“I thank the countries for holding the regime accountable through actions like banning Mahan Air and designating all of Hezbollah and other Iran-backed terror groups as terrorist organizations,” Pompeo told a small group of reporters after the conference. “Our pressure campaign remains designed to induce Iran to act like a normal country. I urged our G-7 partners to go further in joining us, and they should especially stand with the US in ensuring that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon.”

Why it matters: The G-7 member states — the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — have a wide array of divergent Iran policies, some of which are closer to the American position than others.

For instance, Britain in January joined the United States and Canada in designating both the military and political wings of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group as a terrorist organization. But France, Germany and Italy maintain a distinction between the paramilitary wing of Hezbollah and the political party, which serves as part of Lebanon’s governing coalition.