Cotton: US policy should be regime change in Iran

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said the U.S. foreign policy toward Iran should be to push for a regime change, according to a Sunday Politico report.

“The policy of the United States should be regime change in Iran,” said Cotton, who reportedly briefs the White House on foreign policy on a regular basis.

Cotton expressed safety concerns with the Tehran government in its current state.

“I don’t see how anyone can say America can be safe as long as you have in power a theocratic despotism,” continued Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services committee.

{mosads}In order to pressure Iran, the Arkansas senator pointed to the use of diplomatic, economic and covert actions, Politico reported.

He also told the newspaper that the U.S. should “support internal domestic dissent” within the country in order to get their desired outcome, noting that there are multiple minority ethnic groups in Iran who “aren’t enthusiastic about living in a Persian Shiite despotism.”

Stuart Jones, the acting assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, told The Associated Press last month that the U.S. is still forming a “comprehensive Iran policy,” but will continue to implement the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal in the meantime.

Such efforts for a regime change would mark a stark contrast to the promise then-President Barack Obama made in 2013 when he assured Tehran that the U.S. is not seeking “regime change,” during a speech at the United Nations.

Cotton, who often clashed with Obama’s foreign policy stance toward Iran, strongly opposed the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Tehran. 

The Republican lawmaker urged Obama to undo the deal and accused the Obama administration of “acting like a drug cartel” in August 2016, after the controversial $400 million cash payment to Iran surfaced.