Pompeo says Tehran hasn’t accepted his offer to speak directly to Iranian people

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Sunday said that the Iranian regime has declined his offer to travel to the country and speak directly to its people.

“I recently offered to travel to Tehran and speak directly to the Iranian people. The regime hasn’t accepted my offer,” the State Secretary said on Twitter.

“We aren’t afraid of @JZarif coming to America where he enjoys the right to speak freely. Are the facts of the @khamenei_ir regime so bad he cannot let me do the same thing in Tehran? What if his people heard the truth, unfiltered, unabridged?” he added.

Zarif visited New York earlier this month for a UN meeting, giving several interviews with US broadcasters.

Commenting on visiting Iran, Pompeo said he would go there “not to spread propaganda”, but to “speak the truth to the Iranian people about what it is the leadership has done and how it has harmed Iran”.

He believed the reason had not been permitted to go was because the Iranian regime “know the truth as well”.

The remarks came as diplomats from countries that signed the 2015 nuclear deal met in Vienna on Sunday in an attempt to salvage the agreement. The United States withdrew from the agreement last year, damaging relations between Tehran and Washington.

Tensions between Iran and the West have escalated in recent months, following several attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf, as well as the seizure of vessels.