Mike Pompeo, Jared Kushner to visit Middle East to establish diplomatic relations

The Trump administration will be sending top US Officials, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior advisor Jared Kushner, to the Middle East in the coming days to capitalise on the momentum from the historic agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to establish diplomatic relations. According to international media reports, Pompeo and Kushner will be making separate, multiple-nation visits to the region. 

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to depart on August 23 for Israel, Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, Qatar and Sudan. Trump’s senior advisor and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, on the other hand, will be leaving later in the week for Israel, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. 

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As per reports, Pompeo will be discussing the security challenges posed by Iran and China in the region. He also reportedly plans to meet in Qatar with members of the Taliban in a bid to discuss intra-Afghan peace talks that are key to the withdrawal of remaining US forces in Afghanistan. Neither trip is expected to result in announcements of an immediate breakthrough. However, both of them are aimed at finalising at least one, and potentially more, normalisation deals with Israel in the near future. 

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Israel-UAE ‘historic’ agreement 

Pompeo’s and Kushner’s Middle-East trip comes after Israel and UAE’s ‘historic’ agreement. On August 13, Israel and the United Arab Emirates along with the US released a joint statement that US President Donald Trump, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed agreed to the full normalisation of relations between UAE and Israel. 

With the signing of the deal, UAE becomes the third Arab country apart from Egypt and Jordan to normalise relations with Israel. Reports state that Israel and UAE have mulled over formalising Netanyahu's close ties with UAE, but gained fruition after six weeks of indirect talks through Jared Kushner and led to the phone call between the nations' leaders. This move grants a rare diplomatic win to Trump ahead of the November election, as his efforts to see an end to the war in Afghanistan have yet to come to fruition while efforts to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians have made no headway.

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