US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley says Washington is not seeking to overthrow Iran’s government, denying claims by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani that the US favored a “revolution” in Iran.
“The United States is not looking to do a regime change in Iran,” Haley told CNN on Sunday. “We’re not looking to do regime change anywhere.”
Giuliani, Trump’s attorney and former mayor of New York City, told an anti-Iran event on Saturday that Trump’s policy of economic pressure and sanctions against Tehran could spur on a regime change.
“I don’t know when we’re going to overthrow them,” Giuliani said during the so-called Iran Uprising Summit at a hotel in Times Square. “It could be in a few days, months, a couple of years. But it’s going to happen.”
Giuliani’s remarks went against the Trump administration’s declared policy of not seeking a change of government in Iran despite imposing strong economic sanctions against the country.
Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May and announced that his administration was going to snap back sanctions on the Islamic Republic, most notably measures that were going to target its oil exports from November 4.
Washington hopes that the economic pressure will force Tehran not only to halt its nuclear program entirely but also change its policies towards various conflicts in the Middle East.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also contrasted Giuliani in an interview aired Sunday, telling NBC News that Trump was ready to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during (UN) General Assembly gathering later this week.
“If there’s a constructive dialogue to be had, let’s get after it,”he said.
Iran has made it clear that direct talks with the US are not an option until Washington drops all of its hostile policies.
Iran’s President Rouhani says the US is not able to prove its trustworthiness for any negotiations after quitting the nuclear deal with Iran.
This is not the first time that Giuliani is partaking in such events.
Earlier this year, he stole the show at a conference held by notorious MKO terrorists in Paris and made similar calls for regime change in Iran.
“Freedom is right around the corner … Next year I want to have this convention in Tehran!” he said.
The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community. Its members fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where it enjoyed Saddam’s backing.
Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the victory of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to MKO’s acts of terror.
