This ultimatum sounds like the one addressed by the Austro-Hungarian empire to Serbia in 1914: the "sending party" knows in advance that the "receiving party" will not "comply" with it, but it is not the goal. The latter is to legitimize (in the opinion of their allies) the actions to follow. Besides the obvious fact that any ultimatum should be reasonable, it should also contain verifiable clauses only. And at this point politicians often fail because they are mostly the guys with no technical/math education and speak slogans and propaganda-like statements making claims unverifiable. E.g. "spurious charges", "threatening behaviour" and some other words could be interpreted in millions of ways. Also words such as "firing missiles in Yemen" sound vague. The Iranians can say that these are Yemen forces, not them. And proving that this is a lie can only be done if somebody captures the Iranian crew operating the launch complex on the spot in Yemen.Looks strange because according to his bio Mike Pompeo acquired great engineering skills at West Point and thus should be aware of what verification is.