Pompeo uses trip to the Middle East to call for action against Iran
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is using the Middle East leg of his first trip abroad as America’s top diplomat to call for concerted international action to punish Iran for its missile programmes.
He also urged Saudi Arabia and its neighbours to resolve a dispute with Qatar that US officials say Iran is exploiting to boost its influence in the region, including in Yemen and Syria.
Mr Pompeo met Saudi King Sal man, whose country– along with Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – is embroiled in a row with Qatar that had affected Gulf Arab unity and frustrated the US as it seeks to blunt growing Iranian assertiveness in the region.
The ex- CIA chief had arrived in Riyadh a day earlier, shortly after Iranian- backed Houthi rebels in Yemen fired missiles at Saudi Arabia’ s southern city ofJizan,kil lin gone person and underscoring what US officials said is a growing threat emanating from Iran.
Senior US officials travelling with Mr Pompeo blamed Iran for smuggling the missiles into Yemen.
They said the incident highlighted the importance of the Trump administration’s push to counter Iran in the region. Iran has also provided crucial support to Syrian president Bashar al- Assad.
“Iran destabilises this entire region ,” Mr Pompeosai din brief remarks to journalists with S audi foreign minister Adel al- Jubeir. He also called Iran “the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world”.
While not mentioning Qatar by name, Mr Pompeo also stressed that Gulf unit y was “essential”.
Mr Al-Ju beir said the kingdom“supports the policy of the Trump administration against Iran and to improve the terms of the nuclear agreement with Iran”.
Speaking at the press conference, Mr Al- Jubeir called the meeting “fruitful”.
He called for extra inspections of Iranian nuclear sites and imposing new sanctions on the country for“violating international law”.
Mr Pompeo, was sworn in as the US top diplomat on Thursday and flew to Brussels for a visit to Nato headquarters on his first full day in the job.
On Saturday, he started a brief tour of the Middle East.
Mr Pompeo departed Saudi Arabia for Israel last night for a meeting with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and will visit Jordan afterwards.
Mediation efforts on the Qatar issue led by Kuwait and supported by the US, including former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who Mr Trump fired last month, have so far proven to be unsuccessful.
The split gives Iran “room to play” and hampers co-operation on a wide array of other issues, including combating violent extremism from the Islamic State and other groups, officials said.