President Donald Trump has defended his decision to pardon people convicted of assaulting police officers during the attack on the Capitol and suggests there could be a place in U.S. politics for the Proud Boys extremist group, quickly evoking some of the controversies of his first term.

Pompeo said in a statement that Hook has been my point person on Iran for over two years and he has achieved historic results.Hook will be replaced after an as-yet undetermined transition period as Iran envoy by Elliott Abrams, the U.S. envoy for Venezuela. Hook, a longtime Republican foreign policy fixture, was an early arrival in the Trump administration. After Tillerson was fired, Pompeo appointed Hook to the Iran position. As policy planning chief, Hook tried to strengthen the Iran deal, which Trump denounced during the 2016 presidential campaign as the worst deal ever and pledged to pull out from. Once he became Iran envoy, Hook was in charge of identifying sanctions to be restored and trying to lobby Europeans and others to follow suit.

The U.N. arms embargo so far has stopped Iran from purchasing fighter jets, tanks, warships and other weaponry, but has failed to halt its smuggling of weapons into war zones. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hook's remarks. The United Nations banned Iran from buying major foreign weapon systems in 2010 amid tensions over its nuclear program. North Korea, which now has nuclear weapons, is the only country to ever withdraw from the treaty. I dont think anyone believes that Irans behavior merits loosening restrictions on their ability to move weapons, Hook said.

White, a Navy veteran who's been detained in Iran for nearly two years has been released and is making his way home, with the first leg on a Swiss government aircraft. White's release was cheered by Trump, whose administration has said it considers the release of detainees and hostages a priority. Despite widespread speculation, Whites release was not related to the deportation to Iran this week of Iranian scientist Sirios Asghari, the officials said. Trump administration officials in recent months stepped up public pressure to release White. The U.S. has also urged Iran to release other Americans jailed in Iran.

'That's not happening'"That's not happening -- that won't be happening," Trump said during a Wednesday briefing in the Oval Office. The President claimed that the US is "not looking for regime change," but suggested painful US measures are to come. It's also the principle means by which you bring Iran back to the negotiating table." US sanctions against Iran's oil exports have hit particularly hard and on Wednesday, US officials announced new Treasury Department actions to restrict Iran's oil exports that they said benefit the Syrian regime and others. "The economic and reputational cost that result from US sanctions are not worth the modest gains of doing business with Iran."