Top U.S. Envoy for Iran Talks Stepping Down as Tensions Escalate

Written by
Nick Wadhams
Written by

Nick Wadhams

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(Bloomberg) -- Brian Hook, the Trump administration's top envoy for Iran, is stepping down after almost two years helping to oversee the “maximum pressure” campaign that has crippled the Iranian economy but brought the world no closer to a new deal limiting its nuclear program.

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced Hook's departure on Thursday, saying in a statement that he had “achieved historic results countering the Iranian regime.” After a short transition, Hook will be replaced by Elliott Abrams, who also will continue to be the State Department's envoy for the Venezuela crisis, Pompeo said.

Hook's departure comes at a tense time in the global effort to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions, more than two years after President Donald Trump quit the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that was meant to keep it from obtaining the ability to make a nuclear weapon. On Wednesday, Pompeo said the U.S. was preparing to introduce a resolution in the United Nations Security Council to extend an arms embargo against Iran that expires in October.

If that fails -- as may happen with Russia and China vowing a veto -- Pompeo has threatened to invoke a “snapback” provision in the 2015 nuclear deal to reimpose all UN sanctions against Tehran. But a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, said there was still hope for a compromise on the embargo before the U.S. would seek to invoke a snapback.

Hook joined the State Department as former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's director of policy planning and wielded great influence as a top adviser until Trump fired Tillerson in early 2018. Hook sought to negotiate a deal with European powers to strengthen the nuclear deal, an effort that Trump cut short when he decided to quit the agreement months after Tillerson's firing.

Since then, Iran has scrapped many of its obligations under the multinational accord, including caps on its low-enriched uranium stockpile, and denied international inspectors access to some sites. Critics have pointed to those moves as signs that the Trump administration's pressure campaign against Iran has only brought it closer to being able to produce a nuclear weapon.