New Secretary of State: Will the US Foreign Policy Become More Agressive?

• 03.17.2018, 12:27
•  America,  Near East,  World

ALTERNEWS

President of the United States Donald Trump once again surprised the whole world, by firing the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. It is interesting that, like the whole world, Tillerson himself learned about his resignation from the "Twitter" post.  And after Tillerson’s Deputy Steve Goldstein said that the Secretary of State did not speak with the president and he did not know anything about the reasons for this decision, he was also fired from his job.

Instead, the US president nominated the secretary of state 54-year-old Mike Pompeo, who was the head of the CIA for over a year. Now, if Congress approves his candidacy in April, the post of foreign minister will be occupied by a man, who opposes the closure of the prison at Guantanamo and considers Islam a threat to the United States. At the moment, it can be said that Congress will without doubt confirm Pompeo in this position.

Whatever it was, Trump had already made a decision and explained it with some of the disagreements that existed between them, concerning, for example, Iran's nuclear program.

It is difficult to say exactly which position Pompeo will take on a number of important international problems, such as the Syrian conflict, Iran's nuclear program, etc. Assumptions so far can only be done according to his previous interviews.

It is obvious that in the issue of Iran's nuclear program, he has more radical views than Rex Tillerson had. Speaking about Iran's nuclear agreement in 2015, Pompeo said in an interview that he was looking forward to the possibility of canceling a deal with "the world's largest sponsor of terrorism." Back in 2014, he said that military operations against Iranian nuclear facilities could be much more effective than any diplomatic initiatives. In 2017, in an interview, Pompeo noted that Iran is responsible for the chaos in Iraq, Yemen and other countries, and all this must be stopped. He repeatedly condemned Iran and Russia for their presence in Syria. Pompeo said that Iran is connected with the "Islamic state", which, by the way, he considers a threat to the US and Europe.

Referring to the issue of Syria, Pompeo noted in his interviews that he cannot imagine a "stable Syria" led by Bashar Assad. According to him, Assad is a puppet of Iran. Given the above-mentioned, it is possible that on these matters Pompeo will take a more aggressive stance than the US administration has had until now.

As for Israel, the latter did not pay much attention to the appointment of a new US Secretary of State, despite the fact that Pompeo is a great friend of Israel. Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni officially congratulated Pompeo on his appointment. From Israel Pompeo was congratulated only by the Minister of Transport and Intelligence Israel Katz, who had previously met him several times. He congratulated Pompeo on his "Twitter" and thanked him for his support to Israel.

Pompeo was in Israel in 2015, when he was still a senator from Kansas. He then stated that Netanyahu's efforts to counter Iran's nuclear program are excellent and deserve praise. It is possible that Pompeo will become the most pro-Israeli secretary of state in the last ten years.

It should be noted that this is the first time in the history of the United States that the former head of the CIA is appointed as Secretary of State. He has already said that he will work for the good of his country.