U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a scathing rebuke of the Obama administration's Mideast policies on Thursday, accusing the former president of 'misguided' and 'wishful' thinking that diminished America's role in the region, harmed its longtime friends and emboldened its main foe: Iran.
In a speech to the American University in Cairo, Pompeo unloaded on President Donald Trump's predecessor, saying he was naive and timid when confronted with challenges posed by the revolts that convulsed the Middle East, including Egypt, beginning in 2011.
Pompeo laid the blame notably on a vision outlined by President Barack Obama in a speech he gave in Cairo in 2009 in which he spoke of 'a new beginning' for U.S. relations with countries in the Arab and Muslim world.
'Remember: It was here, here in this very city, another American stood before you,' Pompeo told an invited audience of Egyptian officials, foreign diplomats and students. 'He told you that radical Islamist terrorism does not stem from ideology. He told you 9/11 led my country to abandon its ideals, particularly in the Middle East. He told you that the United States and the Muslim world needed "a new beginning." The results of these misjudgments have been dire.'
'In falsely seeing ourselves as a force for what ails the Middle East, we were timid about asserting ourselves when the times – and our partners – demanded it,' Pompeo said, without mentioning the former president by name.
Pompeo's speech came on the third leg of a nine-nation Mideast tour aimed at reassuring America's Arab partners that the Trump administration is not walking away from the region amid confusion and concern over plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to students at the American University In Cairo on Thursday, laying waste to Barack Obama's approach to the Middle East
'The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights,' Obama complained in June 2009, saying that 'this has bred more fear and mistrust'
Former Obama administration officials rejected Pompeo's assertions as petty, political and weak. They said the speech pandered to authoritarian leaders and ignored rights violations that Obama had called out.
'That this administration feels the need, nearly a decade later, to take potshots at an effort to identify common ground between the Arab world and the West speaks not only to the Trump administration's pettiness but also to its lack of a strategic vision for America's role in the region and its abdication of America's values,' National Security Action group, a group of former officials, said in a statement.
Rob Malley, who was Obama's national security council director for the Middle East and is now at the International Crisis Group, said hearing Pompeo's speech was like 'like listening to someone from a parallel universe' in which the region's shortcomings were ignored.
'In that parallel universe, the Arab public probably will receive it enthusiastically,' he said. 'Back on planet earth, they will see it for what it is: a self-congratulatory, delusional depiction of the Trump administration's Middle East policy.'
Pompeo met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, reassuring him that the United States has no intention of abandoning the region despite public acknowledgements that the Trump administration plans to pull U.S. troops out of Syria
Pompeo blamed the previous administration's approach to the Mideast for the ills that consume it now, particularly the rise of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and Iran's increasing assertiveness, which he said was a direct result of sanctions relief, since rescinded by the Trump administration, granted to it under the 2015 nuclear deal.
He said Obama ignored the growth of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon to the detriment of Israel's security and not doing enough to push back on Iran-supported rebels in Yemen.
Since Trump's election, however, Pompeo claimed this was all changing.
'The good news is this: The age of self-inflicted American shame is over, and so are the policies that produced so much needless suffering,' he said. 'Now comes the real 'new beginning.' In just 24 months, actually less than two years, the United States under President Trump has reasserted its traditional role as a force for good in this region, because we've learned from our mistakes.'
Pompeo and his wife Susan (right) were in Cairo for one day, part of a 9-day swing through the region
In the speech entitled 'A Force for Good: America's Reinvigorated Role in the Middle East,' Pompeo extolled the Trump administration's actions across the region cementing ties with traditional, albeit authoritarian, friendly governments, taking on the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and imposing tough new sanctions on Iran.
'President Trump has reversed our willful blindness to the danger of the regime and withdrew from the failed nuclear deal, with its false promises,' Pompeo said.
Since withdrawing from the nuclear deal last year, the administration has steadily ratcheted up pressure on Tehran and routinely accuses the nation of being the most destabilizing influence in the region. It has vowed to increase the pressure until Iran halts what U.S. officials describe as its 'malign activities' throughout the Mideast and elsewhere, including support for rebels in Yemen, anti-Israel groups, and Syrian President Bashar Assad.
'The nations of the Middle East will never enjoy security, achieve economic stability, or advance the dreams of its peoples if Iran's revolutionary regime persists on its current course,' Pompeo said.
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https://hienalouca.com/2019/01/11/pompeo-slams-obamas-middle-east-policies-in-cairo-speech-tries-to-calm-fears-about-syria-pullout/
Main photo article U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a scathing rebuke of the Obama administration’s Mideast policies on Thursday, accusing the former president of ‘misguided’ and ‘wishful’ thinking that diminished America’s role in the region, harmed its longtime...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
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