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Pompeo criticized international leaders who hastened to call Biden to congratulate him and promise their cooperation.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who claims to be preparing for a second term of Donald Trump, arrived this Saturday 14-N in Paris and will then travel to other allied countries whose rulers consider Joe Biden as the president-elect of the United States. .
“There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”
That sentence by Pompeo, released on Tuesday and accompanied by a smile, caused a sensation: it means that the most important member of the US cabinet, charged with representing the country abroad, refuses to admit the victory of the Democrat, recognized however in the most of the allied capitals of Washington.
Pompeo also criticized international leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, who was quick to call Biden to congratulate him and promise their cooperation.
Will he personally tell them to retrace their steps during his 10-day tour of France, Turkey, Georgia, Israel, UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia? Will he try to convince those leaders that the Republican president will start a new term in January?
“He’s still the secretary of state,” a senior US official just replied. Pompeo is “focused on our missions” to defend “the interests and priorities of the United States,” he added.
In Paris, where Pompeo arrived this Saturday morning, the government made it clear that the Trump period is overdue.
Macron will receive Pompeo on Monday morning at the request of the head of US diplomacy, but “with full transparency with President-elect Joe Biden’s team,” the Elysée insisted, noting that contacts are already underway with future US government teams. “established and operational”.
The Parisian stage, which will allow Pompeo to pay tribute to the victims of the recent terrorist attacks, promises to be tense, like many other moments of the tour.
His French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian has warned that he will tell Pompeo his opposition to an acceleration of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.
– Turkish anger –
In Istanbul, on Monday and Tuesday, the secretary of state only plans to meet Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church, to ratify the “firm position” of the United States on religious freedom.
The Turkish authorities have made no secret of their annoyance at this gesture.
“The religious freedom of our fellow citizens of different religions is protected”, Ankara reacted. “It would be more appropriate for the United States to look in the mirror and address racism, Islamophobia and hate crime in their own country.”
But while the issues of friction between the two nations are endless, Pompeo has no intention of discussing it with the Turkish government.
There have been rumors of a possible interview between the US minister and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also congratulated Biden on his election.
“There are no scheduled meetings with Turkish officials,” the State Department denied Friday.
In Jerusalem, Pompeo will hold a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a “friend” of Donald Trump who also congratulated Biden and recalled that he already has a “warm” relationship with the Democrat.
Washington has neither confirmed nor denied the information, but Pompeo will become, according to various media, the first US secretary of state to visit a settlement in the Jewish state in the occupied West Bank and on the Golan Heights.
This is a new unilateral deviation of the Trump administration from international consensus, following the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Palestinians have criticized this symbolic shift, which could partly obscure the other objectives of the visit to the Middle East: to reaffirm the anti-Iran front and promote the “historic” agreements that, under Trump’s aegis, have allowed Israel to engage with Israel. United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
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