CAIRO – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Thursday the United Statesand its allies would chase all Iranian troops from Syria, and urged MiddleEast nations to forge a common stand against Tehran.
“It’s time for old rivalries to end, for the sake of the greater good ofthe region,” said Pompeo at a keynote address in Cairo.
America “will use diplomacy and work with our partners to expel every lastIranian boot” from Syria and bolster efforts “to bring peace and stabilityto the long-suffering Syrian people,” he added.
The top US diplomat was in Egypt on the latest leg of a whistle-stopregional tour aimed at shoring up Washington’s Middle East policy followingPresident Donald Trump’s shock decision to withdraw 2,000 US troops fromSyria.
Pompeo stressed the pullout would go ahead, despite comments in recentweeks appearing to walk back Trump’s decision, but that the US would remainengaged.
The “decision to withdraw our troops has been made. We will do that. Wewill withdraw our forces, our uniformed forces, from Syria and continueAmerica’s crushing campaign,” Pompeo told reporters at a joint pressconference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukry.
He also met earlier with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, afterarriving in Cairo late Wednesday on his longest trip since taking officelast year which has already taken him to Jordan, Baghdad and the IraqiKurdish regional capital Arbil.——————————
*‘New beginning’*——————————
In his address entitled “A Force for Good: America Reinvigorated in theMiddle East” at the American University in Cairo, Pompeo also took aim atformer president Barack Obama without naming him.
Trump’s predecessor had “grossly underestimated the tenacity andviciousness of radical Islamism,” Pompeo said.
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And parroting Obama’s words in his landmark 2009 speech in Cairo, Pompeovowed that now was really “a new beginning” in ties between the US and theMiddle East.
Pompeo’s tour is aimed at urging regional allies to continue to confrontthe “significant threats” posed by Iran and jihadists.
Even though Islamic State group jihadists have been largely eradicated fromIraq, after capturing a vast swathe of territory in 2014, some stillcontrol a few pockets in war-torn Syria.
Pompeo will also visit Gulf countries including Bahrain, the United ArabEmirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
As he arrived in Egypt, the State Department described the country as a”steadfast partner in the anti-terror fight, and a courageous voice indenouncing the radical Islamist ideology that fuels it”.
But there are rising concerns that US policy is getting bogged down. Along-promised Trump plan for a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinianshas so far failed to materialise.
And many of the Trump administration’s decisions have stoked confusion andangered many regional allies. – APP/AFP
