Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took a lot of heat, particularly from Democrats, for addressing the Republican National Convention this week while on a trip with stops …
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took a lot of heat, particularly from Democrats, for addressing the Republican National Convention this week while on a trip with stops across the Mideast — but some analysts point out that there remains a lot of key diplomatic work to be done there. One former top State Department official accused Pompeo of “using Jerusalem as a prop for the RNC.” This was followed by skepticism from some Arab voices about the secretary of state’s reasons for being in the Middle East right now. “People are cynical in the Middle East,” said Mohamed Chebaro of The Independent Arabia. “They think he has done it for his own interests as far as electioneering is concerned in the U. S.” Still, since President Trump announced two weeks ago that a deal to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates had been struck, there have been details to work out, and the Trump administration has aimed to get the support of more countries. Pompeo has been in Israel, Sudan, Bahrain, the UAE and Oman, all in a few short days. “It’s good to see that Mr. Pompeo continues to put that energy and effort in to continue to do those talks,” Mustafa Alrawi, the assistant editor-in-chief of The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, told Fox News.
