Pompeo will visit Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria, becoming the first secretary of state to visit communities in this region of Israel.

By Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Saturday in Paris, at the start of a seven-country tour of Europe and the Middle East.

The trip is aimed at shoring up the priorities of the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump. It will include visits to Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria and Pompeo will become the first secretary of state to visit communities in this region of Israel.

The United States’ top diplomat — as well as its president and much of his Republican Party — have not accepted the results of the American election, and the unusual circumstances will likely overshadow the issues.

Low-key meetings were set for Saturday with civil society, academia and the private sector, according to a senior State Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly about Pompeo’s agenda. No details were provided.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian noted on Friday the “difficult subjects” on the table, from the situation in Iraq and Iran, terrorism, the Middle East and China.

That meeting will take place Monday, Le Drian said, suggesting that Pompeo also will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron. Paris is in the midst of a lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

The French president, who spoke with Joe Biden four days ago to offer congratulations, has had a tense relationship with Donald Trump. Both leaders initially worked to woo each other with gestures of extravagance, such as Macron making Trump the guest of honor at a Bastille Day military parade. Trump later pulled out of the Paris global climate accord, a blow to Macron.

The United States also left the Iran nuclear accord, and Pompeo said in a tweet before departing on his trip that “Iran’s destabilizing behavior” would be among topics of discussion.

In an arrival tweet Saturday in France, Pompeo laid out the standard diplomatic groundwork for his Paris talks, noting that France is the “oldest friend and ally” of the United States. “The strong relationship between our countries cannot be overestimated,” he tweeted.

Promoting religious freedom and countering terrorism were also among topics on the table during his trip, he tweeted.

Both issues are keenly relevant to France. There have been three terror attacks in recent weeks in France that have killed four people, with beheadings linked to recently republished caricatures of Muhammad. Anti-France protests rolled through some Muslim countries after Macron insisted on his nation’s respect for freedom of expression, including the right to draw caricatures.

After France, Pompeo’s tour takes him to Turkey, Georgia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Beside France, Turkey, Georgia and Qatar have had fractious relationships with the Trump administration, and it was not clear whether Pompeo planned public engagements with their leaders — or whether he would take questions from the press.

The administration’s relations with Turkey have been particularly strained after the NATO ally’s purchase of a Russian missile defense system, and Pompeo’s stop in Istanbul next week will not include meetings with Turkish officials. Instead, Pompeo will meet with religious leaders to highlight his promotion of religious freedom.

Palestinian officials, who have boycotted the Trump administration since 2017, have denounced Pompeo’s plans to visit the town of Psagot in Samaria. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh tweeted on Friday that this was a “dangerous precedent” that legalizes “settlements,” a term used derogatorily in reference to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

In keeping with Trump’s refusal to concede, and orders for Cabinet agencies not to cooperate with the Biden transition team, the State Department has not been involved with facilitating Biden’s calls to foreign leaders, according to officials familiar with the process.

At a news conference Tuesday, Pompeo said he would carry on as if there was no change.

“I’m the secretary of state,” he said. “I’m getting calls from all across the world. These people are watching our election. They understand that we have a legal process. They understand that this takes time.”

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Pompeo said that the UN’s release of the blacklist “only confirms the unrelenting anti-Israel bias so prevalent at the United Nations.”

By JNS

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed his “outrage” over the U.N. Human Rights Council for publishing a blacklist on Wednesday of 112 companies connected to Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria.

“The United States has long opposed the creation or release of this database, which was mandated by the discredited U.N. Human Rights Council in 2016,” he said in a statement released by the U.S. State Department. “Its publication only confirms the unrelenting anti-Israel bias so prevalent at the United Nations.”

Pompeo asserted, “The United States has not provided, and will never provide, any information to the Office of the High Commissioner to support compilation of these lists and expresses support for U.S. companies referenced.”

“We call upon all U.N. member-states to join us in rejecting this effort, which facilitates the discriminatory boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) campaign and delegitimizes Israel,” he continued. “Attempts to isolate Israel run counter to all of our efforts to build conditions conducive to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that lead to a comprehensive and enduring peace.”

‘Ammunition for the BDS movement’s anti-Israel campaign’

Jewish and pro-Israel groups also rebuked the United Nations for the move.

“We strongly condemn the issuing of a blacklist by the United Nations Human Rights Council that could be used for discriminatory action against Israel,” said AIPAC in a statement. “This blacklist is clearly designed to target American and Israeli companies for boycotts and other punitive action.”

The pro-Israel lobby continued, “We urge the administration and Congress to act immediately to protect American companies on this list and to prevent American companies from participating in any U.N.-directed boycott against Israel.”

AIPAC also said that “this action is the latest in a deplorable history of attacks on Israel by the U.N. and its agencies. Rather than promoting discriminatory boycotts, the United Nations must demand that the Palestinian leadership return to negotiations with Israel to seek peace and reconciliation.”

“The world body’s endless hypocrisy and double standards towards Israel are staggering,” said American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris in a statement. “Of all the situations in the world in which territory is disputed, the U.N. chooses only to focus on Israel. Why? We call on Secretary-General [António] Guterres to denounce this outrageous assault on the Jewish state.”

“We urge those principled Human Rights Council member states to reject this blacklist, which evokes echoes of Nazi-triggered boycotts and blacklists against Jews, when they convene later this month,” he added. “This initiative should never have received the support of governments seeking to encourage the parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to engage in direct negotiations and pursue an enduring two-state accord.”

In a statement, Anti-Defamation League national director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that “the blacklist will only serve as ammunition for the BDS movement’s anti-Israel campaign, and do nothing to promote constructive initiatives for reconciliation and peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”

“This is perhaps not surprising, considering the UNHRC’s history of obsessively focusing on criticizing Israel while ignoring many human rights abuses and issues occurring throughout the world,” he continued. “By singling out Israel, the UNHRC’s actions also violate a key clause in the widely accepted IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.”

The Israeli-American Coalition for Action (IAC for Action) called the move a double standard.

“Israel is the only country being singled out for such discriminatory treatment and demonization,” said IAC for Action chairman Shawn Evenhaim. “The UNHRC has never released a blacklist for companies operating in disputed territories in any other conflict, though there are nearly 200 others around the world. Ironically, many of the companies included on the UNHCR provide important services and employment to thousands of Palestinian-Arab families as well.”

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Secretary of State Pompeo announced on Monday that the U.S. no longer deems Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria “illegal.”

By World Israel News and AP

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rescinded a 1978 State Department opinion called the Hansell Memorandum, which claimed that civilian settlements in Judea and Samaria are “inconsistent with international law.” The move angered Palestinians and put the U.S. at odds with nations that favor their position.

According to a report by the Jerusalem Post, the State Department’s legal office embarked on a year-long review of the Hansell Memo and met with international law experts and officials from various governments.

The State Department issued the Hansell Memo in 1978 under the Carter administration, but President Ronald Reagan rejected its conclusion in 1981.

The State Department undertook review of the memo after the Obama administration, in one of its final moves, facilitated the United Nations Security Council’s passage of Resolution 2334 in December 2016, which condemned Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as “flagrant violation[s]” of international law and with “no legal validity,” the Post reported.

The Trump administration concluded that the Hansell Memo represents a distraction, and that any legal decision about the issue is appropriate for resolution by Israeli courts, according to a draft of Pompeo’s remarks obtained by The Associated Press.

“Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace,” Pompeo announced. “The hard truth is that there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict, and arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace.”

“We recognized the reality on the ground. … [and] provided a space for Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate,” Pompeo added.

Pompeo commented that U.S. policy has been inconsistent for decades, Times of Israel reported, pointing to statements by Preseident Barack Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry and his declarations that Israeli “settlements” were “illegal.”

“The establishment of Israeli settlements in [Judea and Samaria] is not, per se, inconsistent with international law,” said Pompeo.

“Calling the establishment of settlement inconsistent with international law has not worked,” he added. “It cannot bring peace.”

Previous U.S. policies under the Trump administration have included the decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the movement of the U.S. Embassy to that city and the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington.

According to a 2019 report sponsored by Bet El Institutions, an organization with ties to U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, the population in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria grew to 449,508 as of Jan. 1, 2019 up 3.3 percent from 435,159 people one year earlier.

Shifting tide?

Even though the Trump Administration’s decision is largely symbolic, it could also give a boost to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political survival after he was unable to form a coalition government following recent elections.

In addition, it could spell further trouble for the Trump administration’s Mideast peace plan.

Last week, the European Court of Justice ruled that products made in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria must bear special labels identifying their origin.

Pompeo also announced that the U.S. does not take a position on the legality of specific communities and that the new policy would not extend beyond Judea and Samaria to other territorial disputes.

The shift is a victory for Netanyahu, a longtime booster of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and had been strongly supported by Ambassador Friedman. Friedman was a major fundraiser for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria before becoming ambassador.

Israel captured Judea and Samaria, including eastern portions of Jerusalem, in 1967’s Six-Day War, a conflict during which four Arab states attacked Israel. Israel defeated all Arab aggressors in the conflict.

After the war, Israel declared a “united Jerusalem,” regaining access to Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount, including the Western Wall structure.

Israel has yet to annex Judea and Samaria, despite the hundreds of thousands of Jews who call it home.

The Palestinian Authority, which has not held elections in since 2006, claims that territory in Judea and Samaria will be a part of a future independent state.

Many Israelis maintain that the Palestinian Authority’s open support for terrorism, in addition to the handful of Palestinian terror groups with which it competes for power, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, make the prospect of an autonomous Palestinian state on Israel’s borders a major security threat.

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Trump is crediting his threat of sanctions on Turkey as ‘tough love’ that led the country to agree to a five-day ceasefire in its battle with Kurds in northern Syria.

By Associated Press

The U.S. and Turkey agreed Thursday to a five-day ceasefire in the Turks’ attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria to allow the Kurds to withdraw to roughly 20 miles away from the Turkish border. The arrangement appeared to be a significant embrace of Turkey’s position in the weeklong conflict.

After more than four hours of negotiations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the purpose of his high-level mission was to end the bloodshed caused by Turkey’s invasion of Syria. He remained silent on whether the agreement amounted to a second abandonment of America’s former Kurdish allies in the fight against the Islamic State.

Turkish troops and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched their offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria a week ago, two days after Trump suddenly announced he was withdrawing the U.S. from the area.

Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lauded the deal as a significant achievement, and Trump declared it “a great day for civilization.”

Kurdish forces were not party to the agreement, and it was not immediately clear whether they would comply. Before the talks, the Kurds indicated they would object to any agreement along the lines of what was announced by Pence. But Pence maintained that the U.S. had obtained “repeated assurances from them that they’ll be moving out.”

Ankara has long argued the Kurdish fighters are nothing more than an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a guerrilla campaign inside Turkey since the 1980s and which Turkey, as well as the U.S. and European Union, designate as a terrorist organization.

Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops has been widely condemned, including by Republican officials not directly associated with his administration. Republicans and Democrats in the House, bitterly divided over the Trump impeachment inquiry, banded together Wednesday for an overwhelming 354-60 denunciation of the U.S. troop withdrawal.

Trump has denied that his action provided a “green light” for Turkey to move against the longtime U.S. battlefield partners or that he was opening the way for a revival of the Islamic State group and raising worldwide doubts about U.S. faithfulness to its allies.

President Donald Trump is crediting his threat of sanctions on Turkey as “tough love” that led the country to agree to a five-day ceasefire in its battle with Kurds in northern Syria.

Talking to reporters in Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday, Trump said the Kurds are happy with the deal.

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“It’s part of the nature of the ayatollah to lie to the world,” Pompeo said, adding that he would take their statements “with a significant grain of salt.”

By Nasser Karimi, Associated Press

Iran said Monday it has arrested 17 Iranian nationals allegedly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to spy on the country’s nuclear and military sites and that some of them have already been sentenced to death.

The arrests took place over the past months and those taken into custody worked on “sensitive sites” in the country’s military and nuclear facilities, an Iranian intelligence official told a press conference in Tehran.

He did not  say how many of them got the death sentence or when the sentences were handed down.

The announcement comes as Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers is unraveling and tensions have spiked in the Persian Gulf region. The crisis stems from President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of Tehran’s deal last year and intensify sanction on the country.

The Iranian official did not give his name but was identified as the director of the counterespionage department of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. Such a procedure is highly unusual in Iran; officials usually identify themselves at press conferences. It is also rare for intelligence officials to appear before the media.

The official claimed that none of the 17, who allegedly had “sophisticated training,” succeeded in their sabotage missions. Their spying missions included collecting information at the facilities they worked at, carrying out technical and intelligence activities and transferring and installing monitoring devices, he said.

The official further claimed the CIA had promised those arrested U.S. visas or jobs in America and that some of the agents had turned and were now working with his department “against the U.S.”

He also handed out a CD with a video recording of an alleged foreign female spy working for the CIA. The disc also included names of several U.S. Embassy staff in Turkey, India, Zimbabwe and Austria who Iran claims were in touch with the recruited Iranian spies.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former CIA director, declined on Monday to address specifics of the arrests. But he added: “The Iranian regime has a long history of lying.”

Pompeo pointed to differences between the U.S. and Iranian accounts of the location of an unmanned U.S. drone the Iranians shot down in June, among other incidents.

“It’s part of the nature of the ayatollah to lie to the world,” he said. “I would take with a significant grain of salt any Iranian assertion about actions that they’ve taken.”

Pompeo, speaking from Orlando, Florida, told “Fox & Friends” that Iran has for 40 years “behaved in ways that normal nations don’t. You don’t take other countries’ citizens and hold them hostages for political gain. I think this is just further evidence of the outlaw nature of the Iranian regime.”

Iran occasionally announces detentions of spies it says are working for foreign countries, including the U.S. and Israel. In June, Iran said it executed a former staff member of the American Defense Ministry who was convicted of spying for the CIA.

In April, Iran said it uncovered 290 CIA spies both inside and outside the country over past years.

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Former Texas Rep. Beto O’ Rourke, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, demands evidence that what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said regarding Iran’s culpability in the tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman last week is true.

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“It is the assessment of the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman,” Pompeo told reporters Thursday.

By The Algemeiner and Reuters

Two oil tankers were attacked on Thursday and left adrift in the Gulf of Oman, driving up oil prices and stoking fears of a new confrontation between Iran and the United States, which blamed Tehran for the incident.

“It is the assessment of the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters.

“This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication,” Pompeo said.

Crude oil prices spiked more than 4% after the attacks near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping artery for Saudi Arabia and other Gulf energy producers, stoked fears such disruptions could impact oil flows from the Middle East. Prices later settled about 2% higher.

Washington accused Tehran of being behind a similar attack on May 12 on four tankers in the same area.

Tensions between Iran and the United States, along with its allies including Saudi Arabia, have risen since US President Donald Trump pulled out of a deal last year between Iran and global powers that aimed to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Iran has repeatedly warned it would block the Strait of Hormuz if it cannot sell its oil due to U.S. sanctions.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described the incidents as “suspicious” on Twitter and called for regional dialogue. Tehran has denied responsibility for the May 12 attacks.

A European security official said his nation was being very cautious in making judgments about the incident.

“There are lots of moving parts and ‘facts’ at the moment, so my only advice would be treat things with extra caution,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Pompeo would not be specific about the more recent threat information involving Iran except that they involved “imminent” plans for attacks on U.S. forces.

By Matthew Lee, Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a lightning visit Tuesday to Baghdad aimed at showing support for the Iraqi government as the United States has been picking up intelligence that Iran is threatening American interests in the Middle East.

The top American diplomat’s unannounced trip to the Iraqi capital began and ended after nightfall under heavy security following the abrupt cancellation of a visit to Germany.

Journalists from The Associated Press and other organizations accompanying Pompeo were not told of his new destination until his plane left for Baghdad and were not allowed to report on his whereabouts until after his plane had taken off for London.

The secretary told reporters on the flight that his meetings with Iraq’s president and prime minister were intended to demonstrate U.S. support for “a sovereign, independent” Iraq, free from the influence of neighboring Iran.

Pompeo also said he wanted to underscore Iraq’s need to protect Americans in their country.

“We wanted to let them know about the increased threat stream that we had seen and give them a little bit more background on that so they could ensure that they were doing all they could to provide protection for our team,” he said. “They understood, too, it’s important for their country.”

Pompeo’s visit came as the Trump administration intensified its pressure campaign against Iran. The U.S. said this week that it was rushing an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East to deter or respond to any Iranian attack.

U.S. officials have said there were indications Iran was planning to retaliate for the Trump administration’s stepped-up sanctions on the country, although the threat information remains vague.

Pompeo would not be specific about the more recent threat information involving Iran except that they involved “imminent” plans for attacks. “We’re taking every action to deter them,” he said. “Other than that, I just can’t say any more.”

Before landing in Baghdad he said that that he would make clear in his meetings that any attack by Iran or its proxies on American forces in Iraq would affect the Iraqi government too.

The “campaign to continue to prevent ISIS terror inside of Iraq itself is something that’s very central … to the Iraqi government,” Pompeo said.

In Washington, an American official said the decision to deploy the carrier group and a group of Air Force bombers to the Middle East was based in part on intelligence indications that Iran had moved short-range ballistic missiles by boat in waters off its shores.

Iran, meanwhile, was expected to announced Wednesday that it would partially withdraw from the nuclear deal it struck with world powers in 2015.

As tensions rise between Washington and Tehran, Baghdad in some ways is caught in the middle. Iraq has a close relationship with the U.S., which is leading the international coalition in the war against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. More than 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed on Iraqi soil.

But Iraq is also tightly enmeshed with Iran in trade, security and political matters, and it has been loath to antagonize its larger neighbor. Iran won the ear of many top Iraqi politicians after it stepped in to fill the political vacuum following the 2003 U.S. invasion. It also can count on the loyalty of several powerful Iraqi militias, which have fought previously against U.S. forces in the country and on the side of Iran’s allies in Syria in that country’s civil war.

Responding to a question about whether Iraq could protect U.S. interests from attacks by Iran and its proxy forces, Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said Tuesday that Iraq takes its responsibilities seriously. “This is an obligation that Iraq honors,” he said.

The Trump administration has made several recent moves to squeeze Iran. Last month, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would no longer exempt any countries from U.S. sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil. The U.S. also designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group, the first time it has ever taken such a step for an entire division of another government.

President Trump withdrew from the Obama administration’s landmark nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018 and, in the months that followed, reinstated punishing sanctions, including those targeting Iran’s oil, shipping and banking sectors.

While the president has sought to dismantle much of President Barack Obama’s policies, he particularly criticized the Iran nuclear deal for failing to address Tehran’s ballistic missile program and what he described as its malign influence across the rest of the Mideast.

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Announcing the step, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said no more sanctions waivers would be granted when the current batch expire on May 2, choking off Iranian income that had been more than $50 billion a year.

By Associated Press

The Trump administration said Monday that it will no longer exempt any countries from U.S. sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil, stepping up pressure on Iran in a move that primarily affects the five remaining major importers: China and India and U.S. treaty allies Japan, South Korea, Turkey.

President Donald Trump made the decision as part of the administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran that aims to eliminate all of its revenue from oil exports that the U.S. says funds destabilizing activity throughout the Middle East and beyond.

“This decision is intended to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero, denying the regime its principal source of revenue,” the White House said in a statement.

Announcing the step, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said no more sanctions waivers would be granted when the current batch expire on May 2, choking off Iranian income that had been more than $50 billion a year.

“The goal remains simply: To deprive the outlaw regime of the funds that it has used to destabilize the Middle East for decades and incentivize Iran to behave like a normal country,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department.

The administration had granted eight waivers when it re-imposed sanctions on Iran in November after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. The waivers were issued in part to give those countries more time to find alternate energy sources but also to prevent a shock to global oil markets from the sudden removal of Iranian crude. Three of those waivers, for Greece, Italy and Taiwan, are no longer needed because they have all halted their imports of Iranian oil.

But the other five continue to import Iranian oil and had lobbied for their waivers to be extended. NATO ally Turkey has made perhaps the most public case for an extension, with senior officials telling their U.S. counterparts that Iranian oil is critical to meeting their country’s energy needs. They have also made the case that as a neighbor of Iran, Turkey cannot be expected to completely close its economy to Iranian goods.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized the decision, saying it “will not serve regional peace and stability.”

In a message posted on Twitter Monday, Cavusoglu said: “Turkey rejects unilateral sanctions and impositions on how to conduct relations with neighbors.” Cavusoglu added the decision would harm the people of Iran. He tagged the U.S. State Department and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his tweet.

China, one of Iran’s largest customers, slammed the step, calling it more evidence of U.S. “unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction.” China, which relies on imports for about half of its oil, could present the toughest diplomatic challenge for the U.S. in trying to enforce its sanctions.

Those arguments fell on deaf ears within the administration.

“We will no longer grant any exemptions,” Pompeo said. “We are going to zero, we’re going to zero across the board.”

Iran brushes off decision

Iran brushed off the decision, calling the sanctions “illegal.”

“Regarding the illegal status of the sanctions, the Islamic Republic of Iran basically has not seen and does not see any worth and validity for the waivers,” the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency. It said Iran has intensified consultations with its “European and international partners” and that a “necessary decision” would be announced later, without elaborating.

Earlier, Iran reiterated its long-running threat to close the Strait of Hormuz if it’s prevented from using the crucial waterway in the Persian Gulf through which about a third of all oil traded at sea passes.

Left unclear by the U.S. decision is whether the five countries will face immediate American sanctions if they continue to take delivery of Iranian oil after the waivers expire.

Two senior U.S. officials — Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook and Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Frank Fannon — refused to comment on whether any of them would be given additional time to complete purchases made prior to May 2 or allowed to use money already set aside for purchases after that date without penalty. Both said questions about such provisions were “hypothetical,” suggesting that some accommodation may be possible.

Fannon said the U.S. did not expect any sharp spike in oil prices or any significant reduction in the global supply of oil, given production increases by other countries, including the U.S. itself, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Netanyahu praises move

“The decision of President Trump and the American administration is of great importance in increasing the pressure on the Iranian terrorist regime. We stand alongside the determination of the US against the Iranian aggression and this is the right way to stop it,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated.

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Pompeo thinks Trump may have been chosen to help save the Jews. But even if you leave religion out of it, there’s no denying that this is the most pro-Israel administration yet.

By Jonathan S. Tobin, Editor-in-Chief, JNS

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said something last week timed to the Jewish holiday of Purim that made a lot of people snicker.

He was asked by an interviewer from the Christian Broadcasting Network if U.S. President Donald Trump had been “raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?”

Pompeo’s response went directly to the point: “As a Christian, I certainly believe that is possible.”

He went on to say that he was confident that “the Lord is at work here,” when he surveyed “the work our administration has done to make sure this democracy in the Middle East, that this Jewish state, remains.”

Many heard this and mocked (with good reason) the notion that Trump could possibly be compared to the heroine of the Purim story.

But so deep runs the contempt for Christian conservatives among some sectors of the chattering classes, as well as the foreign-policy establishment, that Pompeo’s willingness to speak of “the Lord” was enough to set eyes rolling.

Others, like Rabbi Jonah Pesner, head of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, deplored the introduction of theology—even one that is favorable to Zionism and the Jewish people—into any discussion of foreign policy.

That was an opinion echoed in The New Republic. It published a scathing attack on Trump and Pompeo for seeking to carry out a “Christianization of U.S. foreign policy.” The magazine blasted the administration’s policies on Pompeo’s own evangelical faith. TNR and other voices on the left have often blamed Trump’s tilt towards Israel on a desire to curry favor with evangelicals.

As with every discussion of Christian support for Israel, Pompeo’s comments prompted some to regurgitate the familiar claims from some on the left that avowed Christian Zionists, like the secretary of state, are only supporting Israel because they wish to set off an apocalyptic scenario that would generate the return of the Christian messiah.

The support of evangelicals like Pompeo is sincere and rooted in a genuine concern for Israel’s well-being that is rooted firmly in biblical texts, not eschatological scenarios. The notion that Jews should be wary of Christians because of their theology is also absurd. Even if all of them were focused on what would happen after Jesus’ return, the idea that Jews, who don’t believe in such a possibility, should worry about what would happen then is ridiculous.

But the more important question to be asked is how Jews—the vast majority of whom purport to care about Israel and its safety—can dismiss Trump’s record on this issue as being of either negligible importance or assert that his policies are actually bad for the Jewish state?

Debate about Trump’s attitude should be over

After this week’s signing by Trump of a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights, the debate about his attitude towards Israel should be over. The timing of the declaration was almost certainly aimed at aiding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election campaign. But the recognition of Israel’s hold on the Golan sent a stronger message to Iran, whose forces and Hezbollah auxiliaries are occupying Syrian territory, than it did to Israel’s voters. It at least partially offset Trump’s ill-advised desire to pull U.S. troops out of eastern Syria and reinforced the administration’s tough stance against the Islamist republic.

Moreover, when placed in the context of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, his unwillingness to accept—as did previous presidents—the Palestinian Authority’s intransigence and financial support for terrorism, and his pulling out of the disastrous 2015 nuclear deal with Iran brokered by his predecessor, there’s no longer any room to deny the depth of the support of this administration for the Jewish state.

This isn’t to argue that this one aspect of his administration must cancel out any other consideration when thinking about 2020. But it does mean that an honest discussion about Trump’s policy when it comes to Israel requires us to discard our partisan lens and understand that whatever his true motivation or how he arrived at his conclusions, what he has done has greatly strengthened Israel’s strategic position.

Argument made against Trump in 2016 falls flat

Some have argued that Trump’s “America First” beliefs will undermine America’s position in the world and ultimately weaken Israel. But while that was a reasonable argument to make in 2016, before we knew how he would govern, it no longer makes sense in light of Trump’s strong stance on Iran or his desire to persuade NATO allies to strengthen their defenses. Indeed, with France and Germany—whose leaders are supposedly the epitome of true Western values—bent on appeasing Iran, that argument now falls flat.

Nor has his inconsistent policy towards Russia—a combination of weak talk and strong policies that are much tougher than those of our European allies—endangered Israel, given that it was Barack Obama who punted Syria to Moscow, not Trump.

Trump has done more than merely reverse Obama’s goal of creating more “daylight” between the United States and Israel. He has promoted policies that have discarded decades of foolish conventional wisdom about the Middle East and replaced it with stances on the conflict that are rooted in realpolitik and recognition of Israel’s rights and security needs.

That doesn’t mean Trump is perfect and, as whoever wins the April elections in Israel may find out, his peace plan may cause more harm than good. But it’s past time that his critics acknowledge that what he’s done with respect to Israel places him above any other American president with respect to friendship for the Jewish state, including Harry Truman (whom many Jewish admirers also spoke of in religious terms), Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush.

That doesn’t make Trump Queen Esther. But whether or not you intend to vote for him next year, it is past time to stop pretending that this administration’s policies towards Israel can be depicted as anything but a historic breakthrough that should be properly noted and applauded.

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“We’ll spend a lot of time talking with the Lebanese government about how we can help them disconnect from the threat that Iran and Hezbollah present,” Pompeo told reporters earlier this week.

By Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held talks with Lebanese leaders on Friday amid strong regional condemnation of President Donald Trump’s declaration that it’s time the U.S. recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

During his two-day visit, Pompeo is meeting with top officials, including some who are aligned with the Iran- and Syria-allied terrorist Hezbollah group.

The visit is the last leg of a Mideast tour that took Pompeo to Kuwait and Israel, where he lauded warm ties with Israel, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on at least three separate occasions, including an official visit to the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, and promised to step up pressure on Iran.

From Israel, Pompeo’s plane travelled through the Cypriot airspace, as Lebanon, which is technically in a state of war with Israel, bans direct flights from Israel.

Once on the ground, Pompeo was taken to the Interior Ministry for a brief meeting with Raya El-Hassan, who was named earlier this year as the Arab world’s first female minister in charge of security.

Pompeo also met with Lebanon’s powerful Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, before heading for a working lunch with Prime Minister Saad Hariri. The State Department’s deputy spokesman, Robert Palladino, said Pompeo highlighted in the meeting with Berri U.S. concerns about Hezbollah’s “destabilizing activities in Lebanon and the region” as well as the need to maintain calm along the border between Lebanon and Israel.

In his Lebanon visit, Pompeo hopes to step up pressure on Hezbollah, which wields more power than ever in parliament and the government.

“We’ll spend a lot of time talking with the Lebanese government about how we can help them disconnect from the threat that Iran and Hezbollah present,” Pompeo told reporters earlier this week.

“Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. You ask how tough I am going to be? It is a terrorist organization. Period. Full stop,” Pompeo said in Jerusalem on Thursday.

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, visited the Old City of Jerusalem, where he placed a note in the Western Wall and visited the Shaarei Teshuva synagogue in the tunnels.

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“This is the eve of Purim, and we have a miracle of Purim,” Netanyahu said in a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after a visit to the Western Wall and Trump’s declaration recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

By World Israel News Staff

U.S. President Donald Trump declared recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights on Thursday, after which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a call to the American leader to thank him.

Earlier in the day, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an official visit to the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem together with Netanyahu and American Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

Following are excerpts from Netanyahu’s remarks at the joint statements with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jerusalem Thursday evening, regarding Trump’s declaration.

“I’m so excited. We’re so excited, Sara and I, to have you here, but especially on this evening. This is the eve of Purim, and we have a miracle of Purim.

“President Trump has just made history. I called him. I thanked him on behalf of the people of Israel. He did it again.

“First, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. embassy here. Then he pulled out of the disastrous Iran treaty and re-imposed sanctions. But now he did something of equal historic importance – he recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and he did so at a time when Iran is trying to use Syria as a platform to attack and destroy Israel.

“And the message that President Trump has given the world is that America stands by Israel.

“We’re celebrating Purim, when 2,500 years ago, other Persians, led by Haman, tried to destroy the Jewish people. They failed then; and today, 2,500 years later, again Persians, led by Khamenei, are trying to destroy the Jewish people and the Jewish state. They’re going to fail again.

“We are deeply grateful for the U.S. support. We’re deeply grateful for the unbelievable and unmatchable support for our security and our right to defend ourselves and everything that you do on behalf of Israel and for the State of Israel in so many forms. So, it is a distinct pleasure to welcome you and Susan to our home at any time, but especially today.

‘This is a different time’

“Now, let me add another word about that. We had a moving visit today to the Wall. I can’t resist repeating this, but I’m going to. I said to the Secretary that the last time a Pompeo visited Jerusalem, it didn’t end that well. But this is a different time. Roman Jerusalem clashed over values, with a great tragedy for the Jewish people. But the new Rome, the United States, views itself as a new Jerusalem. We visited the original City on the Hill. We visited the hill.

“There is no greater friendship than the one between Israel and the United States, and no one represents it better than Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. You and Ambassador Friedman and your delegation are exceptional champions of our alliance.

“I’ve called you so many times, on so many things that this evening I just want to say one word—two actually: thank you. Thank you, Mike Pompeo. Thank you, President Trump. And thank you, America. To the people of Israel, I say:

“We have a Purim miracle here. President Trump has made history. He recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, at a time when Iran is trying to use the Golan Heights as a platform to destroy Israel.

We are marking the miracle of Purim – 2,500 years ago the Jewish people defeated those who tried to destroy it, other Persians, and today just as they failed then, they will fail this time as well thanks, inter alia, to the strong support of the US and its President. We have had no greater friend in our history.”

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Pompeo on Wednesday lauded the White House’s ties with Israel and promised to step up pressure on Iran.

By Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

During a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the Israel on Wednesday, the White House announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be welcomed in Washington over two days next week with Israel just two weeks from the April 9 polls.

Netanyahu thanked Pompeo for the Trump administration’s strong stance against Iran, which routinely threatens to destroy Israel.

The prime minister also referenced Iran’s attempt to set up a terrorist network to target Israel from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967.

“You could imagine what would have happened if Israel were not in the Golan,” he said. “You would have Iran on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.”

Pompeo did not mention the issue, but the administration is considering recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan. Last week, in its annual human rights report, the State Department dropped the phrase “Israeli-occupied” from the Golan Heights section, instead calling it “Israeli-controlled.”

Israeli and U.S. officials say they expect an announcement on U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan could come as early as Netanyahu’s visit to Washington next week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not yet been made public.

Pompeo touted last month’s Mideast conference in Poland , where he said dozens of countries discussed ways “to stop Iran’s regional rampage.”

Referring to Iranian leaders’ pursuit of the “annihilation and destruction” of Israel, he pledged continued American support.

“With such threats a daily reality of Israeli life, we maintain our unparalleled commitment to Israel’s security and firmly support your right to defend yourself,” he said.

In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria to halt Iranian arms transfers to the Hezbollah terror group, and to prevent Iran from establishing a permanent military presence in the country.

Iranian and Hezbollah forces have been supporting Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s troops since the early days of the eight-year civil war, during which the Assad regime has slaughtered thousands of Syrians.

Netanyahu said he was working closely with the U.S. “to roll back Iranian aggression” in the region and around the world. ”

There is no limitation to our freedom of action and we appreciate very much the fact that the United States backs up our actions,” he said.

He also welcomed last year’s U.S. withdrawal from the international nuclear deal with Iran, as well as tough U.S. sanctions that were re-imposed on the country.

“This pressure is working,” he said. “We need to increase it. We need to expand it.”

Pompeo arrived in Jerusalem after a stop in Kuwait, where he renewed calls for a resolution to a festering dispute between Qatar and four other Arab nations, all of them America’s partners in the Middle East. Kuwait has been attempting to mediate an end to the crisis.

Pompeo said the dispute, which has roiled the Gulf Cooperation Council for almost two years, is hindering efforts to combat regional threats posed by Iran, ISIS and other terrorist entities.

In Israel, Pompeo also attended a summit of Mediterranean natural gas producers Israel, Cyprus and Greece.

From Israel, he is to travel to Lebanon.

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Meeting with Israeli, Kuwaiti and Lebanese leaders, Pompeo will put the threat posed by Hezbollah high on the agenda, a senior U.S. official said.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Israel this week for “critical” meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a three-country tour in the Middle East.

Pompeo will arrive in Jerusalem after attending the annual U.S.-Kuwait Strategic Dialogue event on Tuesday in Kuwait City, a senior State Department official told reporters last week, before moving on to Beirut.

Pompeo will meet with “a range of senior Israeli officials” to discuss “the challenges posed to the region, to Israel, to the United States by Iran and by Iranian proxies,” the official said. He will “reaffirm both privately and publicly during that visit our unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and its right to self-defense.”

Although the official stressed that the visit has nothing to do with Israel’s upcoming elections and is not an attempt to bolster Netanyahu among the electorate, it has been painted as such by Netanyahu’s opposition, who expect a final election gift from U.S. President Donald Trump to Netanyahu ahead of the April vote.

No political challengers to Netanyahu are included among the dignitaries scheduled to meet with Pompeo.

“We have critical, important bilateral, regional and transregional issues to discuss with the Government of Israel,” the official said, adding that the meetings “are squarely in the context of bilateral discussions on critical issues of importance to the U.S. that do not halt, stop, diminish in importance, go into a suspended animation state because of an electoral cycle.”

The Secretary himself told Fox and Friends on Friday that his purpose for going to each of the countries is to help them “bolster their efforts to push back against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

One of the main topics of discussion will be the threat posed by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organization whose attack tunnels into Israel were recently discovered and destroyed by the IDF. It will also be high on the agenda in Beirut, said the official.

“Obviously, in those discussions the secretary will be discussing quite directly the challenges posed by Iran, its illicit activities, its threatening behaviors, Lebanese Hezbollah, their illicit activities and threatening behaviors, and how this all plays for a promising future—or against—for the people of Lebanon,” he explained.

While admitting the “fact” that Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government, the issue “is what Hezbollah does to Lebanon and the people of Lebanon through that participation,” the official added. It is a question that the Pompeo will be addressing “quite squarely in his meetings.”

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The U.S. secretary of state says the Trump administration has been consulting allies across the Middle East about its plan.

By David Jablinowitz, World Israel News

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that immediately following Israel’s April 9 parliamentary election, the Trump administration will build on the foundations already laid towards reaching an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.

“We’ve been working on this for a long time…We’ve begun to share elements of this across the region. It won’t be a U.S.-driven process,” Pompeo said, as he addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, speaking by satellite in a video conference.

“Ultimately, the Israelis and the Palestinians will have to come to an agreement. But we think that the foundations that we have laid and the work that we’ll do immediately following the Israeli elections will set conditions where we can have a constructive conversation,” Pompeo added.

In the past, U.S. officials have hinted about the future of the plan but refused to commit to a specific timetable of when details would be announced. Since late December, when the Knesset legislated the early election, the prevailing view has been that the process would have to wait until after the April ballot.

Even once the election takes place, the process of forming the new Israeli government coalition could take another several weeks, raising the question of whether the U.S. would wait until the new Cabinet is in place.

Last week, President Donald Trump’s Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt dismissed an Israeli television report on the U.S. president’s peace plan as not accurate and not helpful.

The Channel 13 report said the proposal included a divided Jerusalem and would offer a Palestinian state in up to 90 percent of Judea and Samaria, with major settlement blocs to be annexed by Israel. There would also be land swaps according to which the Palestinian state would receive land from within Israel in exchange for territory that Israel would annex in Judea and Samaria.

Greenblatt tweeted that he would “highly recommend” that people listen only to the official statements that come from him, President Donald Trump, the president’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, or U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. He did not include Pompeo on the list.

Speaking Tuesday, the U.S. secretary of state said that “it seems to me that we’re at a point in time where there are ways that we can resolve the primary differences and encourage… the Israelis and the Palestinians to come together to resolve their differences and get a solution there that has bedeviled the world for an awfully long time.”

Pompeo did not attend the Davos conference in person because of the cancelation of the trip due to the U.S. government shutdown.

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