BUENOS AIRES (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th August, 2020) The Trump administration's appointment of current US Special Representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, as the country's new special envoy to Iran is "low" and "immoral" given his involvement in the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal, the Venezuelan foreign minister Jorge Arreaza said on Friday.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed the appointment on Thursday, after Brian Hook, the outgoing special representative to Iran, announced his resignation.
"Appointing Elliott Abrams as special representative to Iran, when this gentleman was arrested and convicted as part of the infamous and criminal Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s is nothing more than a low, cynical, and immoral decision. Only someone like [President Donald] Trump could come up with such a thing," the foreign minister wrote on Twitter.
Abrams will serve as the special representative to both countries at the same time.
The so-called Iran-Contra affair became a massive scandal in the 1980s when it was revealed that senior US officials facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which at that time was under an arms embargo, in order to free hostages being held in Lebanon.
In 1991, Abrams was convicted on two counts of withholding evidence to Congress over the affair but was later pardoned by President George H. Bush.
