Vice President Pence heads to the Middle East with prospects for peace deal all but dashed
January 20, 2018 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Vice President Mike Pence arrives in the Middle East on Saturday, launching a high-stakes tour that was delayed after President Trump’s decision recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital sparked protests across the region.
He will visit Egypt, Jordan and Israel over four days but won’t meet with Palestinians, reflecting the impasse in the Trump administration’s efforts to broker peace between them and Israel.
Those ambitious efforts ground to a halt after Trump’s decision Dec. 6 to eventually move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, canceled a planned meeting with Pence in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
Tensions flared again in advance of Pence’s trip when the administration Tuesday announced it would hold back $65 million of a planned $125-million payment to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which for decades has paid for medical and educational assistance to Palestinian refugees.
The White House decided Pence should depart for the trip as planned Friday night, though Congress continued to be deadlocked over funding the government. Pence was not expected to be needed to break a tie in the Republican-controlled Senate; if needed, he would make phone calls to lawmakers from the plane en route to Egypt, a White House official said.
Pence’s meetings with the leaders of the three countries “are integral to America’s national security and diplomatic objectives,” his press secretary, Alyssa Farah, said in a statement.
The vice president first will meet in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, the strongman Trump called “my friend” during an Oval Office meeting in April. In Amman, Jordan, Pence will confer with King Abdullah II, who had swiftly condemned Trump’s action on Jerusalem. In Israel, his last and longest stop, Pence is to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Pence will also speak to Israeli lawmakers in the Knesset, where he is likely to receive an enthusiastic reception.
Islamic State forces in the Sinai Peninsula, while Jordan needs American military and intelligence assistance as the fight against Islamic State winds down next door in Syria and large numbers of Syrian refugees settle in Jordan.
Sisi and Abdullah “would love to express their dismay,” said Wayne White, a policy expert at the Middle East Institute and a former State Department official. “But in doing so, they are afraid of some abrupt decision that could be severely damaging economically and in terms of security cooperation with the U.S.”
Twitter: @ByBrianBennett
brian.bennett@latimes.com
UPDATES:
6:30 p.m.: This story was updated to show Pence is making his fourth trip to Israel.
This story was published at 3:15 p.m.
