All the more so when Trump has failed to develop any coherent policy toward Iranian advances in Syria and Lebanon. Trump lately has suggested that he might reinstitute sanctions unilaterally if European nations don’t agree to a new deal putting new limits on Iran’s nuke program.
Advertisement
Pompeo has frequently expressed scorn for Iran, which he once characterized as “a thuggish police state” and a “despotic theocracy”. Pompeo’s State Department, however full or empty, could more openly embrace Trump’s “America First” approach overseas.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob Menendez said in a statement that Tillerson’s firing highlights Trump’s lack of understanding of how the State Department promotes U.S. interests and advances national security.
US Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein, however, had said on Tuesday that Tillerson “is unaware of the reason” for him being dismissed.
Speculation that Tillerson would be fired grew with those reports last fall, and the secretary of state never personally denied their accuracy. He had urged the president to stay in the agreement to keep leverage over Iran’s ballistic missile testing and other actions not covered under the agreement.
“Jamaica and the United States of America have always had strong ties of cooperation, trade and friendship and we intend to build on same”, said Mrs Johnson Smith in reaction to the disclosure that Mr Trump had fired Mr Tillerson via Twitter.
Mr. Trump released a statement shortly before leaving for his trip to California saying he was “proud” to nominate Pompeo to replace Tillerson.
Former Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams explained that loyalty is not a secondary qualification; rather, it’s a primary one.
Back in 2017, the Senate gave quick confirmation to President Donald Trump’s national security team and his first secretary of state.
He said Pompeo and Haspel both supported war in Iraq and want war in Iran, which he opposes, and he criticized both for supporting the use of waterboarding and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques widely considered torture. However, nothing would prevent Trump from withdrawing at any time before then. But his hard-line stance against Iran emerged on March 14 as a potential obstacle for his nomination in the U.S. Senate, which must confirm him to the top diplomatic post. He said all the parties agreed to work on the deal, despite Trump’s possible decision to walk away from it, according to Reuters. One in four say the rest of the world would feel more of the impact. With a summit with North Korea in the works, President Trump’s decision to oust Tillerson and replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo could not have come at a better moment.
Tillerson repeatedly advised the president not to rip up the deal. Britain is looking to the United States for support in responding to the nerve gas attack. Those foreign policy wonks tend to admire the director of policy planning, Brian Hook, but look in vain around the department for anyone else with anything resembling a theory of the world on which to operate the world’s link to the United States. They have also pushed Washington to take a harder line on Qatar, which they and other Arab nations have boycotted since a year ago, accusing it of supporting extremist groups and cozying up to Iran.
“What matters to the Islamic Republic of Iran are the policies and approaches of the United States in regard to worldwide issues and toward Iran”, Ghasemi told journalists. Though, Trump said about him that “we have a very similar thought process” but it might make the new foreign secretary’s job even harder. As a member of Congress and then head of the Central Intelligence Agency, he never carried the responsibility of coming up with solutions to his criticisms.
More say that the meeting is mainly for show: only a third think it is an important step towards peace between the two countries.
Advertisement
Leaving Iran free to resume nuclear development at a time when its behavior threatens Arab neighbors and Israel would be worse than senseless.
