Secretary of State Mike Pompeo contended that “the protests in Iran itself in 90-plus cities are taking place because the Iranian people are fed up. They see a theocracy that is stealing money… they say enough and they’re demanding these basic rights”. “Our role in all of this”, he added, “is to support freedom wherever we are able to do so, to create transparency that the world can see”. Pompeo went on to say that “sanctions have been incredibly effective. Iran’s wealth will decrease materially in 2019 from 2018, and again in 2020 from 2019… this is not to impact the Iranian people. There is plenty of money for the Iranian people. If the ayatollah can underwrite a missile program, centrifuges spinning to create nuclear systems, to underwrite Hizbollah in Lebanon, to underwrite fighters that are traveling to Latin America – if the Iranian regime has that much money and wealth, it has plenty of money to take care of its own people”. “We’re simply doing this to keep America safe, to keep the Middle East more stable and to enable the Iranian people to convince the regime that it needs to change it ways in the most fundamental and basic way”, he concluded.