Pompeo in Jerusalem: ‘Trump Administration Will Continue to Be a Force for Good’

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during his weekly briefing at the State Departmen
NICHOLAS KAMM/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Deborah Brand

The Trump administration will continue to be a force for good all over the world, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the JNS wire in an interview published Friday.

“America will exert its moral force to be a force for good around the world. And I am very confident that the Trump administration has been, and will continue to be, a force for good not only in this region but in every place where American influence can be,” Pompeo said.

During his three-day visit to the country, Pompeo made stops in the Golan Heights and an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, a first for an American top diplomat. He announced the U.S. would allow settlement products “Made in Israel,” reversing the Obama administration’s guidelines that designated all settlement products be labeled as “Made in West Bank.”

He also said the U.S. would being designating the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel as “anti-Semitic.”

Pompeo told JNS that the U.S.-brokered normalization deals between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Brahrain had “isolated Iran in ways that when we came into office wasn’t the case.”

“[T]the Abraham Accords exist because they are in the best interest of sovereign nations. The leaders of Bahrain and Sudan and the Emirates chose to enter into these agreements with Israel because it was in the best interest of their people. And every leader has a responsibility to do that,” he said.

Pompeo went onto highlight key elements of the Trump administration’s foreign policy towards Israel, including, “the isolation of Iran; the central recognition that Jerusalem is the rightful capital of the Jewish homeland; that the Golan Heights belongs to Israel.”

He said the conflict between Israel and Palestinians is important and needs to be resolved, its resolution “can’t be a precondition for increased stability and prosperity in the Middle East.”

Addressing his controversial visit to the Psagot winery in an Israeli settlement of the same name, Pompeo said, “I saw Arabs living peaceably alongside Jews. I saw people of all different stripes.”

“The idea that every settlement is unlawful as a matter of law doesn’t comport with reality. Israeli courts have recognized that some settlements aren’t, and this is how this should be resolved. It’s actually pretty straightforward, in my judgment,” he said.

Regarding the Palestinian leadership’s rejection of President Donald Trump’s peace plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Pompeo said, “you can see nations all across the world coming to understand that the Palestinians have rejected reasonable offers to negotiate time and time again. And the leadership has simply failed its own people.

Asked if further announcements are on the horizon in the near future, Pompeo responded: “Oh yeah.”

 

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