Pompeo heads to Mideast in peace push
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday headed to the Middle East, the first of two senior U.S. officials to travel to the region this week as the Trump administration presses an ambitious Arab-Israeli peace push that President Donald Trump hopes will burnish his foreign policy credentials ahead of November’s election.
Pompeo is traveling to Israel, several Gulf Arab states and Sudan and will be away when he is scheduled to speak Tuesday to the Republican National Convention, which will nominate Trump for a second term. Should Pompeo appear by remote or recorded video, it will break a long tradition of secretaries of state declining to participate in the public political nomination process.
Previous secretaries of state have shunned overtly partisan rhetoric. Pompeo’s three immediate predecessors made a point of being out of the country and unavailable during their parties’ presidential nominating events. If Pompeo’s planned speech to the convention goes ahead, he is likely to tout Trump’s Mideast policies and the recent agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations.
To accelerate progress in the region, Pompeo is expected to be followed to many of the same destinations later in the week by Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, diplomats said.
Neither Pompeo’s nor Kushner’s trip is expected to result in announcements of immediate breakthroughs, but both are aimed at building on the success of the Israel-UAE agreement by finalizing at least one normalization deal between Arab countries and Israel in the near future.
The administration has forged ahead with those efforts over Palestinian objections and without any indication the Palestinians are willing to enter negotiations with Israel.
In addition to Israel and Sudan, the State Department said Pompeo would travel to Bahrain and the UAE. Officials said stops in Oman and Qatar are also possible.
“The U.S. commitment to peace, security, and stability in Israel, Sudan, and among Gulf countries has never been stronger than under President Trump’s leadership,” the State Department said in a statement announcing Pompeo’s trip.
Kushner and his team are expected to visit Israel, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Morocco on their trip, which is scheduled to begin at the end of the week, according to the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the itinerary has not yet been finalized or announced.
In Israel, Pompeo will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to discuss regional security issues related to Iran’s malicious influence, establishing and deepening Israel’s relationships in the region, as well as cooperation in protecting the U.S. and Israeli economies from malign investors,” the State Department said.
“Malign investors” is a reference to China, which is seeking to gain a commercial foothold in Israel.
In Khartoum, Pompeo will meet Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok “to discuss continued U.S. support for the civilian-led transitional government and express support for deepening the Sudan-Israel relationship,” the department said. Sudan is eager to be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and normalizing ties with Israel would be a step toward that goal.
However, removal from the terrorism list is also dependent on completion of a compensation agreement for victims of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. A tentative deal struck several months ago is still awaiting finalization.