Pompeo Calls the U.S. a ‘Force for Good’ in Middle East Speech

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo will tell the Arab world to do more in the fight against Islamic extremism and argue that the U.S. is again a “force for good” in the Middle East during a speech in Cairo intended to underscore the Trump administration’s hard-line approach against Iran.

“In just 24 months, the United States under President Trump has reasserted its traditional role as a force for good in this region,” Pompeo will say in the speech Thursday at the American University of Cairo, according to a State Department fact sheet circulated beforehand. “We have rediscovered our voice. We have rebuilt our relationships. We have rejected false overtures from enemies.”

The speech is fashioned explicitly as a rebuttal to one that President Barack Obama delivered in Cairo in 2009, when he said he was “prepared to move forward” with Iran after decades of hostility, called for a two-state solution in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and demanded Israel stop settlement activity.

Pompeo, who is visiting Middle East nations during a week-long swing through the region, will underscore how much the Trump administration has departed from the Obama approach. According to the fact sheet, which includes excerpts of the remarks, he will say the U.S. has “always been a liberating force, not an occupying power.”

“We’ve never dreamed of domination,” he’ll say. “Can you say the same of the Iranian regime?”

He will call on Arab nations to do more to fight Islamic extremism and warn them they can never enjoy security or economic stability if Iran’s regime “persists on its current course.”

But the speech comes amid confusion over U.S. policy after President Donald Trump announced he’s pulling troops out of Syria “now,” and that Islamic State has been defeated. Trump soon backtracked to emphasize the withdrawal will come “slowly” and the fight against the terrorist group will continue. The mixed messages have strained relations with Turkey and raised questions about whether the U.S. departure will bolster Iran and Russia as major influences in the region.

A central tenet of Trump’s foreign policy approach has been countering Iran. Trump quit the 2015 Iran nuclear accord last May, arguing that it failed to halt the country’s march toward an atomic weapon and did nothing to limit its other “malign activity” -- such as funding terrorist groups and sending proxy fighters to Syria.

The U.S. has since reimposed a raft of crippling sanctions against Iran despite an outcry from European allies and other countries that agreed to the 2015 accord. Pompeo has set out a 12-step plan that he says Iran must complete before sanctions are lifted. Leaders in the country have rejected that idea.

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