U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as part of a Middle East tour where the U.S. top diplomat is seeking to rally Arab allies following President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will be taking U.S. troops out of Syria.
Pompeo arrived in Cairo following a meeting with Iraqi officials in an unannounced visit to Baghdad and Erbil, in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, where he met with leadership there.
Other than Iraq and Egypt, Pompeo’s Middle East tour will also take in Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman.
Pompeo has the task of explaining U.S. policy in the region after Trump’s announcement of the withdrawal of all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria, which rattled allies and came as a shock to top U.S. officials. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quit over it.
