Pompeo says U.S. ‘a friend’ in Israel’s fight with Iran
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday as a “true friend of Israel,” and both men affirmed that the U.S.-Israeli relationship has never been stronger.
Pompeo noted that he has yet to visit his office at the State Department since being sworn in Thursday. Pompeo expressed pride in the administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, a decision that prompted a lopsided vote of condemnation at the United Nations and spurred a handful of nations to move their own embassies to Jerusalem. Both Pompeo and Netanyahu used their meeting to tear into Iran, characterizing it as an international menace whose ambitions have been unleashed by the 2015 nuclear deal, a view shared as well at Pompeo’s previous stop, in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
Pompeo said Iran aims to dominate the entire Middle East, adding, “The United States is with Israel in this fight.” Although Netanyahu praised the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as bold and historic, he met Pompeo in Tel Aviv, not in Jerusalem as originally planned. Pompeo had no plans to meet with any Palestinians, who have stopped talking to U.S. officials since the Jerusalem decision. Nor did he plan to visit the site in Jerusalem that the administration is upgrading into an embassy.
Apart from updating Netanyahu on the looming decision on whether to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and co-ordinating ways to contain Iran in Syria, the Pompeo visit serves to set him apart from his predecessor, Rex Tillerson.
During his 14-month tenure, Tillerson never visited Israel solo, only accompanying Trump. Under Tillerson, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was largely removed from the oversight of the State Department and added to the portfolio of Trump senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“Pompeo’s early and quick trip to the region, particularly to Israel, is also a form of station identification that the new secretary of state intends to become a dominant force in Middle East policy-making,” said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official specializing in Middle East issues who is now at the Woodrow Wilson Center.