Pompeo foresees more Arab countries recognizing Israel shortly

Pompeo foresees more Arab countries recognizing Israel shortly amid reports of Bibi Netanyahu secret visit to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

He shared his views on the latest developments in a teleconference interview with Bret Baier of Fox News.

Pompeo foresees more Arab countries recognizing Israel

The most important question he faced: Mr. Secretary, was that the Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and the head of Mossad flew to Neom, Saudi Arabia to meet with MBS, the crown prince. So did that happen or not?

Pompeo answered: Well, look, I’ve seen the reporting. I was with each of those two. I was with the prime minister in Jerusalem. I was with the head of Mossad in Jerusalem as well. We had productive discussions. I don’t – I’ll leave to them to discuss the meetings that they may have had or may not have had.

The host asked does he expects more normalization announcements from other countries, like Saudi Arabia, with Israel before the end of the president’s term?

Secretary Pompeo answered in affirmative. He said he does. He expects more normalization announcements. Whether they’ll come in the next 30 days or 60 days or six months is difficult to know, but the direction of travel is very clear, and the rationale for that has a little bit to do with American policy.

Remaining part is reproduced below:

We got it right. We took away the excuse of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. We took away the excuse that the United States was going to appease Iran.

Emirati businessmen in Israel

And so we took that away, and in the end those were good and sovereign decisions by those leaders. Those countries are more safe, more secure, and they’ll be more prosperous. I saw Emirati businessmen in Israel. I saw Israeli businessmen in the Emirates. Good things are happening the way those two countries are coming closer and closer together, and everybody who joined the Abraham Accords will see the benefits for their own people. So I am highly confident that many, many more nations will ultimately choose to do the right thing and recognize Israel as the rightful homeland of the Jewish people.

Iran factor

QUESTION: When you speak about Iran, you’ve talked about the maximum pressure campaign and how it has been effective, in your words. What do you say to the critics who say that Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon now as you get ready for this transition with another team that may look at the situation completely different than you?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, they’re just wrong factually about that. First, I came into an administration, as did President Trump, where we were funneling tens of billions of dollars into that country, creating wealth and prosperity. The real tools of creating a nuclear weapon are capacity, smart people, money. Those are the things that help you build out a nuclear weapons program.

The previous administration had chosen to give them an awful lot of that thing – money. We’ve chosen to deny them. I think the Iranians said now tens and tens of billions of dollars in wealth has been denied them as a result of the isolation which we have created. We’ve saved lots of lives, lots of American lives. We have to have fewer soldiers in the Middle East today because of the actions we have taken. I am confident that that’s the right policy.

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