Pompeo arrives in France and starts trip to Middle East
By: Lucas Bakker
Tags: Middle East, USA, Pompeo, France

US Secretary of State microphone Pompeo arrived in France Saturday at the beginning of a seven-nation tour of Europe and also the Middle East, a visit that’s bound to be awkward since all the countries on his schedule have congratulated Joe Biden over his success within the United States presidential race whereas the highest US diplomat has not accepted the poll results.

Pompeo’s trip is aimed toward propping up the priorities of the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump, notably its anti-China and Persia policies. it’ll embody visits to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, avoided by previous secretaries of state.

But the standard US foreign policy issues are likely to be overshadowed by an extraordinary moment in global politics: While most of the world has accepted the results of the November 3 presidential election, the top US diplomat — as well as the US president and much of his Republican Party — have not.

Pompeo raised eyebrows last week when, in response to a reporter’s question on the transition process, the top US diplomat replied, “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” Days later Pompeo tempered his remarks, noting that the State Department would be functional and successful with the president who takes office on January 20, 2021.

France, along with Germany, the UK and other European countries, congratulated Biden last weekend and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday held his first telephone conversation with the US president-elect.

Pompeo will see Macron on Monday in a meeting that will be conducted “in complete transparency towards the team of president-elect Joe Biden”, Macron’s office said Friday.

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

Responding to a question about Trump’s reported plans to hasten a US withdrawal from Afghanistan during a televised interview, Le Drian noted that, “We don’t think that should happen. We will also say that it shouldn’t happen in Iraq, either.”

Over the past four years, Macron has had a tense relationship with Trump despite initial attempts to woo each other with gestures of extravagance.

Shortly after Trump took office, Macron made the US president the guest of honor at a Bastille Day military parade. But Trump later pulled out of the Paris global climate accord, a blow to Macron.

The US also left the hard-won 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.

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

Both issues are keenly relevant to France. There have been three terror attacks in recent weeks in France that have killed four people, linked to recently republished caricatures of the prophet of Islam. 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.