Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are the most responsible for Iran’s economic and worldly positions, despite the west holding those two leaders apart from the regime’s support for terrorists, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday.

“Here in the West, President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif are often held apart from the regime’s unwise terrorist and malign behavior. They are treated somehow differently,” Pompeo said in a speech on the administration's plan for Iran at the Heritage Foundation. “Yet Rouhani and Zarif are your elected leaders. Are they not the most responsible for your economic struggles? Are these two not responsible for wasting Iranian lives throughout the Middle East?”

Pompeo said that instead of Rouhani and Zarif helping their own people, they are more interested in seeking a corridor from Iran to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to be able to transport fighters and weapons to militants in Israel.

The newly confirmed secretary of state urged the Iranian people to consider this point, because he says the West often makes excuses for them.

“The West says: ‘Boy, if only [Rouhani and Zarif] could control Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Qasem Soleimani, then things would be great,’” Pompeo said, pointing out that the two Iranian leaders are just as much to blame for Iran’s situation as the terrorists in the region.