In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Pompeo commented about the execution of a man convicted of murder in Iran, and described it as a “despicable” move made by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad “Zarif’s government”. He also called for consequences for what he called the Iranian government's "barbarity."
Later in the day, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh censured the tweets as “psychotic reactions” to the Trump administration’s “successive defeats”.
The tweets, which were “filled with anger” at Foreign Minister Zarif, stemmed from disappointment and depression following the US Department of State’s back-to-back defeats and were aimed at covering up those failures, the spokesman said in a statement.
“Unfortunately the US Secretary of State, who is witnessing the failure of the maximum pressure policy and unilateralism toward Iran more and more, is desperately attempting to retrieve part of the lost reputation of Trump’s regime by claiming to be an advocate of human rights,” Khatibzadeh said.
However, he added, the US itself has the darkest human rights record and there is no single day without protests by the American people against violence, discrimination and racism.