MATTHEW BOYLE 15 Sep 2021 Nicosia, Cyprus
Pompeo%u2019s interview came late Saturday night aboard the U.S. Air Force jet transporting him and the U.S. delegation after he met with the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, whom he visited here after earlier in the day attending the opening of intra-Afghan peace talks in Doha, Qatar. As the jet touched down in Doha late Friday night the previous evening, the deal being rolled out this week between Bahrain and Israel to normalize relations was announced. Previously, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel announced they were normalizing relations. On Tuesday at the White House, representatives of both Bahrain and UAE are meeting with Trump in addition to Israeli officials including Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
%u201CIt%u2019s a great question. They are all connected,%u201D Pompeo told Breitbart News when asked to connect the dots between the Afghan peace talks and these other peace deals being rolled out now. %u201CThe president laid down a strategy for how to secure America from instability and threats from the Middle East.%u201D
Pompeo, who is at the White House with Trump and other American officials as part of the historic meetings for the peace deals on Tuesday, said that Trump%u2019s Middle East policy strategy vision began by treating Iran as the main threat in the region.
%u201CIt began by recognizing the primary operator for instability, the Islamic Republic of Iran,%u201D Pompeo said. %u201CThat central decision has begun to drive all of the elements of our foreign policy in the Middle East. Reduce our footprint in Afghanistan, get our young men and women home. Reduce our footprints in Iraq and Syria, be strong in terms of sanctions and place pressure on the regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and then lay out a strategy for Middle East peace which had multiple pieces right?%u201D
Several of the steps that laid the groundwork for these major steps toward Middle East peace, Pompeo told Breitbart News, include recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and several other steps taken in Israel. That, he said, has lit a path forward for Arab countries in the region for a vision for peace.
%u201CSome of this is reality: Recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, acknowledge that the Golan Heights indeed is Israeli territory. We%u2019ve also made clear that the settlements in the West Bank weren%u2019t necessarily unlawful,%u201D Pompeo said. %u201CAll of those things come together to place the conditions where frankly countries in the Middle East can see a path forward for how you can take down risk and grow their economies. We think about these deals between Bahrain and the Emirates as security arrangements. That%u2019s true, but the benefits to the economies of those three countries of opening up trade will be enormous.%u201D
Pompeo, who on Saturday in Doha met with leaders of the Afghan government and Taliban delegations at the beginning of intra-Afghan peace talks as the U.S. is as he told Breitbart News on pace for a full withdrawal of all armed forces by next spring, said the U.S. sees Afghanistan and other countries eventually reaching a place where through %u201Ceconomic benefits%u201D to the region they join other Arab nations in push for peace inside their countries and with the West. He said the hope is even Iran will one day come to the table for a real deal, rather than the flawed Iran deal from former President Barack Obama%u2019s and former Vice President Joe Biden%u2019s administration from which Trump withdrew the United States.
%u201CThose economic benefits are the kind of thing that we hope one day is something we can do in Afghanistan,%u201D Pompeo said. %u201CWe%u2019ve made progress in Iraq as well by defeating the caliphate. All of those things come together to reduce risk from the Middle East. We hope that the Iranians will come to see that there is a pathway for them as well, but until they do, the pressure campaign will continue.%u201D
Pompeo also said that while Afghan peace is still a ways away, and that Afghanistan becoming a country like UAE or Bahrain is still even further off, there definitely are other countries in the Middle East that are likely to soon join UAE and Bahrain soon.
%u201CYes there are,%u201D Pompeo said.
Asked if it is a %u201Cpeace through strength%u201D doctrine, like what former President Ronald Reagan championed, Pompeo said it is%u2014but the focus from Trump is on %u201Ceconomic strength.%u201D He added that the president is unafraid, as he has demonstrated, to use military force however to demonstrate America%u2019s might if needed.
%u201CIt%u2019s absolutely the model, with an emphasis on economic strength,%u201D Pompeo said. %u201CThe thing that America does best%u2014our creativity, our innovation, our capacity to create opportunities for good all across the world%u2014it%u2019s absolutely peace through strength. We%u2019re very much focused on making sure if there%u2019s a bad actor, if Qassem Soleimani is threatening America, President Trump will never shy away from using military force. But we%u2019re not going to be engaged in countries doing extended policing when they don%u2019t generate safety and security for the American people.%u201D
This is the second piece from Pompeo%u2019s exclusive interview with Breitbart News. More is forthcoming.
