US warns Iran on nuclear weapons

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday warned Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons, saying it would face the “wrath of the entire world” if it did so, but added that he hoped it would never be necessary for the United States to take military action against the country.

In an interview with political columnist Hugh Hewitt conducted on Friday and broadcast the following day on MSNBC, Pompeo said that whatever the fate of the international nuclear deal with Iran, it would not be in Tehran´s interest to seek nuclear arms.

“I hope they understand that if they begin to ramp up their nuclear program, the wrath of the entire world will fall upon them,” he said.

“Wholly separate from if they spin a couple of extra centrifuges, if they began to move to a weapons program, this is something the entire world would find unacceptable and we’d end up down a path that I don’t think is in the best interests of Iran,” Pompeo said.

He said, however, he was not talking about a US military response.

“When I say wrath, don’t confuse that with military action.

When I say wrath, I mean the moral opprobrium and economic power that fell upon them.

That´s what I´m speaking to.

I´m not talking to military action here.

I truly hope that that’s never the case.

“Pressed on whether the United States would do whatever it had to do to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Pompeo said: “President Trump has been unambiguous in his statements that say Iran will not be able to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Iran accuses rights lawyer of state security offences: Award-winning Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh faces prosecution on state security charges following her arrest in the capital last week, her husband said on Saturday.

Sotoudeh, 55, denies the charges but remains in the women´s wing of Tehran´s notorious Evin prison after refusing to post bail of $95,000 (more than 80,000 euros), Reza Khandan told the ISNA news agency.

“My wife is accused of conspiracy, assembly and propaganda against the system” of rule of the Islamic republic, Khandan said.

“My wife considers the accusations against her to be baseless and made up, and the bail demand to be disproportionate,” he added.

Sotoudeh, who is one of the few outspoken advocates for human rights in Iran, was detained in her Tehran home on June 13.

Her arrest has been condemned by the US State Department and human rights group Amnesty International, which both called for her immediate release.

Earlier this year, Sotoudeh represented several women arrested for protesting against the mandatory wearing of headscarves in Iran.

Tehran police said in February that 29 women had been detained for posing in public without their headscarves.

Sotoudeh won the European Parliament´s prestigious Sakharov rights award in 2012 for her work on high-profile human rights and political cases, including those on death row for offences committed as minors.

She spent three years in prison between 2010 and 2013 for “actions against national security” and spreading “propaganda against the system” and remains banned from representing political cases or leaving Iran until 2022.

Sotoudeh has defended journalists and activists including Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and several dissidents arrested during mass protests in 2009 against the disputed re-election of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

She had recently spoken out against a new criminal code that allowed only a small number of lawyers — just 20 in Tehran — to represent individuals charged with state security offences. During her previous spell in Evin, Sotoudeh staged two hunger strikes in protest at the conditions and over a ban on seeing her son and daughter.