US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday (July 25th) he would "happily" go to Tehran to address tensions between the two countries over US sanctions on the Islamic republic, AFP reported.
Pompeo explained in an interview with Bloomberg he would willingly appear on Iranian television to explain US reasoning behind the sanctions.
"I would welcome the chance to speak directly to the Iranian people... about what it is their leadership has done and how it has harmed Iran," he said.
Iran's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, renewed accusations during a visit to the UN last week that the US was using the sanctions to wage "economic terrorism".
Pompeo brushed the accusations aside Thursday, laying the blame squarely at the feet of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
He said the US goal was to "create as much stability in the Middle East as we could".
"So we broke out of the [nuclear] deal, we stopped giving them money, we put pressure on the Iranian regime, and we are forcing them to make tough decisions about how they are going to behave," Pompeo said.
"We want change in behaviour from the Iranian leadership so that the Iranian people can ultimately get what it is they deserve."
