The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pence’s Middle East trip to focus on soothing relations with Egypt
When Vice President Mike Pence travels to the Middle East next week, there is one message that the Trump administration wants to convey loud and clear: Egypt continues to be an “incredibly important” partner in the region.
In a Friday morning phone call with reporters who will travel with Pence next week, senior administration offi- cials kept adding superlatives as they described the United States’ partnership with Egypt, which has been strained following President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this month to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the U.S. Embassy there. At the time of the announcement, the Egyp- tian government said that President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi spoke with Trump and “reit- erated Egypt’s unwavering position with regard to main- taining the legal status of Jerusalem within the frame- work of international references and relevant U.N. resolutions.”
Many U.S. allies disagreed with Trump’s decision, as no other country has its embassy in Jerusalem, under a long-standing international consensus that the city’s status should be decided in a peace deal between the Israe- lis and the Palestinians. Several countries have warned that the move could inflame Muslims and disrupt prog- ress toward a peace deal. On Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced he would not meet with Pence, and the pope of the Egyptian Coptic church, who leads the larg- est Christian denomination in the Middle East, also canceled his planned meeting in Cairo with the vice president.
Pence had originally planned to visit Israel first, but he has rearranged his schedule and will now travel first to Cairo, where he is expected to have a bilateral meeting with Sissi on Wednesday. The change was made, an adminis- tration official said Thursday, because in the wake of the Jerusalem decision, the vice president felt it was import- ant to address the entire Muslim and Arab world — and Egypt was a natural venue. Pence will then continue on to Israel for meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, and give formal remarks at the Knesset. On his way home, Pence will visit troops at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. A senior administration official said Friday that they hope the vice president’s trip will end the chapter of emo- tional backlash to the pres- ident’s decision and start a new chapter, refocusing on priorities like fighting terrorism. In Egypt, aides said that Pence plans to address a range of issues in addition to the peace process: reaffirm a strong U.S.-Egyptian security relationship and continue their joint fight against ter- rorism, recognize Sissi as an “important partner” in the region, encourage Egypt to release American citizens detained in Egypt and discuss North Korea, Russia and foreign aid. Trump’s Middle East peace negotiator Jason Greenblatt will travel to the region ahead of the vice president early next week and plans to meet with Fernando Gentilini, the European Union special representative for the Middle East peace process. A senior administration official said Friday that the Trump administration understands that “the Palestinians may need a cooling-off period” Pence’s announced and any planned the and When persecution pressure religious does trip. to not focus Pe this minorities on n plan of them trip, c heavily Christians e he to during first in had put the on Middle president up private in his conversations, East. public will While still remarks bring the aides vice that and said messaging Friday will that be much focused of his on the with United Egypt States’ and their relationship partnership to fight terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere. The vice president does not plan to meet with any Christian groups during the trip or to visit the West Bank city of Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity. The vice president was originally supposed to leave this weekend, but he delayed the trip by three days to remain in Washington in case he is needed to cast a tiebreaking vote on Republican tax legislation. Republicans hold a narrow majority in the Senate and are desperate to push through their tax plan — which, if successful, would mark Trump’s only major legislative achievement this year — before the holiday break.