Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has dismissed suggestions the police response to riots in the U.S. following the killing of George Floyd undermines Washington’s ability to take a tough line with authoritarian regimes.
On a visit to Prague at the start of a five-day trip to Europe that will also take him to Slovenia, Austria, and Poland, Pompeo said in an interview with Radio Free Europe the U.S. opposed the crackdown in Belarus, following the disputed election win of strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Pending discussions with European partners, the U.S. is still weighing up its response to the election, the aftermath of which has seen protests and widespread arrests. The promised delivery of U.S. oil to Belarus presents Washington with a potential bargaining chip in forcing Lukashenko’s hand.
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“We were incredibly troubled by the election and deeply disappointed that it wasn’t more free and more fair,” Pompeo told Radio Free Europe.
However, Pompeo took issue with a question about whether the police response to protests in the U.S., where federal agents in unmarked vehicles took protesters off the streets, had harmed Washington’s ability to take a moral stance against authoritarian regimes.
“Even your question is insulting,” Pompeo said. “The difference between the United States and these authoritarian regimes couldn’t be more clear.
“We have the rule of law, we have the freedom of press, every one of those people gets due process. When we have peaceful protesters, we create the space for them to say their mind, to speak their piece.”
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“Contrast that with what happens in an authoritarian regime. To even begin to compare them, to somehow suggest that America’s moral authority is challenged by the amazing work that our police forces, our law enforcement people do all across America.”
“I, frankly, just find the question itself incomprehensible and insulting,” Pompeo added.
Pompeo also said in the interview that he had warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov there would be “an enormous price to pay” if Moscow was found to be offering bounties for U.S. soldiers or other Western troops in Afghanistan.
“We won’t brook that, we won’t tolerate that,” he said, referring to the report in June that a Russian military intelligence unit offered the bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. and coalition force troops in Afghanistan.
Pompeo was also bullish about the prospect of U.S. efforts to extend the expiring arms embargo on Iran, regardless of a possible veto by U.N permanent council members and Iranian allies Russia and China.
“We’re going to make it come back. We have the right to do it under 2231 and we’re going to do it,” Pompeo said, referring to the UN resolution passed in 2015, endorsing the Iran nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
