Press TV _ Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has countered US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's claims that "when America retreats, chaos often follows," saying actually the opposite is true. 

“Whenever/wherever US interferes, chaos, repression, and resentment follow,” Zarif tweeted on Thursday in response to Pompeo's remarks in Egypt which raised eyebrows in the United States and abroad.

Pompeo described the US as a “force for good” in the Middle East in a speech at the American University in Cairo, which contradicted President Donald Trump's announcement last month to pull troops out of the region.

Pompeo accused former US president Barack Obama of having sowed chaos by abandoning the Middle East.

“We learned that when America retreats, chaos often follows. When we neglect our friends, resentment builds. And when we partner with our enemies, they advance,” he said.

“The good news is this: The age of self-inflicted American shame is over. And so are the policies that produced so much needless suffering. Now comes the real new beginning,” Pompeo added.

Trump last month announced that he had ordered staff to execute the "full" and "rapid" withdrawal of US military from Syria. While that decision’s timing is unclear, it is widely seen as abandoning the region.

Pompeo, however, said the US withdrawal from Syria was not "a change of mission."

"Let me be clear: America will not retreat until the terror fight is over," he said, adding, "For our part, our airstrikes in the region will continue as targets arise," he added.

Pompeo’s speech drew immediate criticism from Middle East experts as well as officials who served under Obama.

“It feels a little bit as if the approach is to ‘talk loudly and carry a small stick,’” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

In his rambling speech, Pompeo also spoke extensively of the US "campaign to stop Iran's malevolent influence and actions against this region and the world."

He said US economic sanctions against Iran were "the strongest in history, and will keep getting tougher until Iran starts behaving like a normal country."

In his Thursday tweet, Zarif said, “The day Iran mimics US clients & @SecPompeo’s ‘human rights models’ — be it the Shah or current butchers — to become a ‘normal’ country is the day hell freezes over. Best for the US to just get over loss of Iran.”

Iran was a key ally of the US in the Middle East before the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy led by Mohammad Reza Shah.