US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Photo: Screenshot.

A leading US-based Jewish human rights group praised the Trump administration this week for the “strong stand” it has taken against the Iranian regime’s ongoing support for terrorism and threats against Israel.

“The Jewish people have learned the brutal lesson from the Nazi Holocaust, that when a leader threatens you with genocide you take such threats seriously,” Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper — the dean and associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center — said in a statement. “The world, including many Jewish leaders, dismissed Hitler’s early threats against the Jewish people as bombast. The scope of death and destruction of WWII and the unspeakable horrors of the Shoah have taught us to never again dismiss such threats as empty rhetoric.”

“Unfortunately,” Hier and Cooper continued, “the previous administration believed that it could moderate the mullahs actions and words through negotiation and perks. We are grateful that the Trump administration is basing it’s policies on Iranian behavior, not wishful thinking.”

At a State Department press conference on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, “Iran’s provocative actions threaten the United States, the region, and the world…the Trump administration is currently conducting a comprehensive review of our Iran policy. Once we have finalized our conclusions, we will meet the challenges Iran poses with clarity and conviction.”

The July 2015 nuclear deal reached by Iran and six world powers, Tillerson stated, “fails to achieve the objective of a non-nuclear Iran; it only delays their goal of becoming a nuclear state. This deal represents the same failed approach of the past that brought us to the current imminent threat we face from North Korea. The Trump administration has no intention of passing the buck to a future administration on Iran.”

Watch a video of Tillerson’s remarks below: