Pompeo meets with Putin for discussion on Iranian conflict and election meddling

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Sochi on Tuesday for meetings with Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov as a growing conflict between the United States and Iran threatened to boil over.

It is Pompeo's first visit to Russia as America's chief diplomat, and he said ahead of the trip that he would confront Putin about election interference.

'We’ll certainly talk about that,' he assured a CNBC interviewer. 'I’m confident that the American people should feel good about the security of our elections in 2020.'

The State Departments said Monday that 'attacks' by Iranian proxies and Tehran's 'destabilizing' actions in Syria would be on the agenda, as well. 

The U.S. is accusing Iran of sabotaging four oil tankers anchored in the Middle East, and President Trump warned Iran on Monday that 'it’s going to be a bad problem' for the nation if the behavior worsens.

'They’re not going to be happy. They are not going to be happy people,' he said in the Oval Office.

Allegations over the oil tankers, two of which belonged to the Saudis, one the UAE, and one of which was a Norwegian vessel, further strained relations between Iran and the U.S.

The White House was said to be considering a proposal to send 120,000 troops to the Middle East on Tuesday, in case escalated tensions evolved into a military conflict with Iran.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan developed the plan at National Security Advisor John Bolton's request, the New York Times reported.

Last week, the U.S. sent a group of nuclear-capable, aircraft carriers to the Middle East, as it claimed it had evidence of a 'credible threat' from Iran that required the urgent deployment. 

Tehran announced days later that it would no longer abide by certain provisions of the international nuclear agreement that Donald Trump left last year but Europe and Russia remain party to, unless it gets the sanctions relief it was initially promised. 

Trump's administration responded to the threat by introducing sanctions on Iran's medal industry. 

Russia has said that U.S. sanctions on Iran are 'illegitimate' and in violation of a United National Security Council resolution. 

Pompeo insisted Saturday in an interview with CNBC that the U.S. is right to take action to contain Iran.

'What we’ve seen from the Iranians is increased threats, and we’ve seen this reporting. It’s real. It appears to be something that is current,' he said. 'So we’ve done all of our things to increase our security posture to the best of our ability.'

He added, 'But we also wanted to make sure that we had deterrent forces in place, so in the event that Iran decided to come after an American interest, whether that be in Iraq or in Afghanistan or Yemen or any place in the Middle East, we were prepared to respond in an appropriate way.'

Pressure from the new dispute with Iran could derail Trump's attempt to reset relations with Russia, now that the special counsel investigation into election meddling and alleged collusion has concluded.

He spoke to Putin by phone before Pompeo's trip and announced plans on Monday to hold talks with the Russian leader next month at the G20. 

After confirming he'd meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Osaka at the June conference, Trump said, 'Yes, I’ll be meeting with President Putin also.' 

He said he's sending Pompeo to meet with Putin first to make clear that 'there has never been anybody that’s been so tough on Russia but, at the same time, we’re going to end up getting along with Russia' because it makes sense for the nations to work with one another.

'Nobody has sanctioned Russia like I have. Nobody has talked about the pipeline going to Germany and various other places like I have. I said it’s very unfair — having to do with the United States and NATO. There has been nobody that’s ever done — and if you really look at something big, our energy business — we’re now the biggest in the world. 

He said, 'We’re bigger than Russia. We’re bigger than Saudi Arabia. We’re bigger than anybody. That it all happened since I’ve become President because I’ve made it so that you can do that. And we’re taking in a lot of money.' 

If Trump's meeting with Putin is the carrot, Pompeo planned to arrived on Tuesday with a stick, the State Department signaled on Friday.

'The starting point we have to have when we discuss our policy toward Russia, and this is part of what diplomacy does, and the secretary's trip, is to acknowledge frankly that Russia has taken a series of aggressive and destabilizing actions on the global stage,' a senior official said Friday. 

The senior State Department official declined to lay out U.S. expectations on a call previewing the visit by Pompeo, telling reporters, 'I don't want to predict any outcomes.'

Conflicts in Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Ukraine and North Korea were expected to come up. So were the cases of U.S. citizens who are detained in Russia. 

'The secretary will also talk about the challenges in our bilateral relationship with Russia,' the official said. 'It is no secret that we have many areas of disagreement with the Russian Government, and the secretary will have a very candid conversation about concerns in our bilateral relationship.'

Those challenges include Russia’s alleged violation of arms control agreement and 'Kremlin-backed attempts to meddle in U.S. and other foreign elections,' the State Department said.

'These are issues he’s raised before, and he will continue to raise. No administration has been tougher than the Trump administration in imposing costs on Russia for its malign activities,' the official said of Pompeo's visit.

The official said that trip is an 'opportunity to take the conversation' on key issues 'to a higher level' by meeting directly with Putin.

'This trip is an opportunity to make those points clear to the Russian government and what are expectations are and see how to forge a path forward,' the person said.