BRUSSELS (AFP): Washington’s newly appointed secretary of state set off on a tour of America’s key Middle East allies on Saturday, vowing to bring some “swagger” back to US diplomacy.
After attending NATO talks in Brussels, Mike Pompeo was to embark on a three-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan to update friends on President Donald Trump’s plans for the Iran nuclear deal.
Pompeo insists his boss has not yet made the decision, but Trump is widely expected to pull the United States out of the accord next month, re-imposing sanctions against Tehran’s nuclear program.
The former CIA chief, who was sworn in as Trump’s top diplomat on Thursday and set off within two hours for Brussels, will consult with leaders of Iran’s main regional opponents ahead of the announcement.
But he also has a second more personal mission, to show foreign capitals and his own colleagues that US diplomacy is back on track after the troubled reign of his sacked predecessor Rex Tillerson.
Trump’s first secretary of state, a former oil executive, failed to fill senior positions, embarked on unpopular bureaucratic reforms and had conspicuously little chemistry with the president.
Pompeo – a former army officer, businessman and conservative congressman – wanted to set off on the road immediately on being sworn in, in order to reach out to NATO and Middle East allies. But he has promised to address State Department staff in Washington on his return on Tuesday, and was full of praise for the staff who scrambled to put together his first foreign itinerary.
“I just met with a great group of State Department officers who work here at the mission. They may have been demoralised, but they seemed in good spirits,” he said Friday, at NATO headquarters.
“They are hopeful that the State Department will get its swagger back, that we will be out doing the things that they came onboard at the State Department to do,” he promised.
“To be professional, to deliver diplomacy – American diplomacy – around the world, that’s my mission set, to build that esprit and get the team on the field so that we can effectuate American diplomacy.”
The former Kansas politician is seen as an anti-Iran hawk with hardline views about projecting US military might, and his socially conservative opinions might be out of place at the State Department.
During his short confirmation process, critics pointed to past statements critical of Islam and of same-sex marriage, which they said made him an unsuitable champion of American ideals abroad.
But there is also optimism, palpable among the officials around him on the trip, that US diplomacy, at last, has a chief who can speak for the president and will focus on the department’s core missions.
In Saudi Arabia on Saturday, Pompeo is due to hold talks with his counterpart Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir in Riyadh, before having dinner with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The prince, or MBS as he is commonly known, is the kingdom’s de facto ruler and a would-be social reformer who launched an anti-corruption drive to secure his own control over the oil-rich royal elite.
Like Trump and Pompeo, he is a tough opponent of Iran, but his war against the Tehran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen is stumbling and has contributed to the country’s large-scale humanitarian disaster. Trump also wants Riyadh to do more and spend more to support the US-led operation in Syria to defeat the Islamic State group and allow American forces to come home more quickly.
After Saudi Arabia, Pompeo is due to fly on to Israel for talks with staunch US ally Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then to Jordan, a friend with a long border with war-torn Syria.
Strike kills dozens of Yemen rebels
SANNA (AFP): An air strike on Yemen’s capital by a Saudi-led military coalition has killed dozens of Houthi rebels including at least two commanders, Saudi television reported on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia’s official Al Ekhbariya television said two high-ranking insurgents were among more than 50 Houthi militiamen killed in Sanaa on Friday evening, without giving further details.
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said a total of 38 rebels were killed in the strike on a Houthi interior ministry building.
The Houthis confirmed an air strike on Sanaa but gave no details.
The raid came hours ahead of a public funeral of the Houthis’ political head Saleh al Sammad, killed last week in a Saudi-led coalition strike.
It also came as newly-appointed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was scheduled to land in Riyadh for meetings including talks on the Yemen conflict.
The Iran-backed rebels have been locked in a war with the Saudi-led military alliance, which since 2015 has fought to restore the internationally-recognised Yemeni government to power. The Yemen conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between regional titans Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis control Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, as well as much of the country’s north — which borders Saudi Arabia — and the key Hodeida port on Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-led alliance joined the Yemen conflict, triggering what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Yemen now stands at the brink of famine.
The Saudi-led coalition imposed a total blockade on Yemen’s ports in November in retaliation for cross-border Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia.
