Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will embark on a Middle East tour next week, aiming to offer a policy vision for the region at a moment of uncertainty about his boss among U.S. allies. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images foreign policy Pompeo plans Middle East tour amid confusion over Trump policy The secretary of state will visit several Arab countries in the wake of Trump's murky plans for Syria.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will embark on a Middle East tour next week, aiming to offer a policy vision for the region at a moment of uncertainty among U.S. allies over President Donald Trump’s intentions.

The Jan. 8-15 trip will take Pompeo to Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait. A stop in Iraq also is possible.


The trip comes amid new confusion over Trump’s foreign policy, after Trump first ordered a swift U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria before saying the process would happen in a slow and careful fashion. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also fending off rising political opposition in Washington to their military campaign in Yemen against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

Pompeo’s visit will follow a trip to Turkey and Israel by national security adviser John Bolton, who departs for the region on Friday. Bolton is expected to explain — and conduct political damage control — around Trump’s Syria pullout.

While in Cairo, Egypt, the secretary of state will deliver a speech about the U.S. “commitment to peace, prosperity, stability, and security in the Middle East,” the State Department said. POLITICO broke news of the speech last month.

Trump announced last month that the U.S. will withdraw its roughly 2,000 troops battling the Islamic State terrorist group in northern and eastern Syria. Trump initially said the pullout — which blindsided advisers and generals who opposed the idea — should happen quickly, leaving planners scrambling.

But as bipartisan backlash has built over the plan, which helped to trigger Defense Secretary James Mattis’s resignation, Trump and top officials now say it will happen more deliberately, to ensure that the Islamic State cannot regroup, that America’s Kurdish allies are protected, and that Iran does not exploit a power vacuum.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Some have given four months as a potential timeline. But on Friday, a senior State Department official implied even that timetable was not yet certain. The official did reiterate that the the U.S. would not stay in the country indefinitely.

“We have no timeline for our military forces to withdraw from Syria,” the official said in a briefing with reporters, adding: “It will be done a deliberate, coordinated way” that keeps pressure on what’s left of the Islamic State.

U.S. allies in the region, including Israel and Kurdish fighters, have been taken aback by the initial announcement and repeatedly sought clarity from the Trump administration.

Bolton, Pompeo and others have insisted that the U.S. can withdraw troops while still fighting the remnants of the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS. But their assurances have not dispelled much of the confusion.

On his Twitter feed Thursday, Bolton wrote: “Leaving tomorrow for Israel & Turkey to discuss the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, how we will work with allies & partners to prevent the resurgence of ISIS, stand fast with those who fought with us against ISIS, & counter Iranian malign behavior in the region.”

Bolton will be joined by James Jeffrey, the U.S. special representative for Syria engagement, and Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Pompeo’s trip to the region was in the works before Trump’s initial announcement about quitting Syria. But the issue will loom over his visit.

Last month, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Pompeo will meet with the Iraqi prime minister in Baghdad on Jan. 11.

The State Department, probably for security reasons, did not mention Iraq on its roster of countries that Pompeo will visit. If he does show up in Baghdad, however, Syria is likely to be a major topic of discussion given that the Islamic State has militants in both countries.

Aside from the future of the U.S. role in Syria, Pompeo plans to discuss a host of other sensitive topics with his counterparts, including one of his top priorities: rolling back Iranian activity throughout the region.

“Iran we view as the key threat, the key destabilizing actor in the region,” one of the senior State Department officials said on the briefing call.

The officials added that the administration still wants to ensure that all Iranian-commanded forces leave Syria.

Pompeo’s speech in Cairo about the U.S. role in the Middle East will likely include a significant section on what the Trump administration refers to as Iran’s “malign influence” in the Middle East.

The State Department officials declined to give details about the speech other than to say, “The secretary is going to speak about America as a force for good in the region.”

The fight against Islamist terrorist groups, the diplomatic rupture between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, oil markets and the future of war-torn Yemen also are among the issues on Pompeo’s plate.

While in Saudi Arabia, Pompeo plans to ask for an update on Riyadh’s investigation into the October murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

A senior State Department official on the press call said the Trump administration wants to see the Saudis punish the perpetrators behind the Khashoggi killing, but that the steps the Saudis have taken so far, which includes a trial of 11 suspects that began this week, are not adequate.

The official and his colleagues did not say whether that meant the U.S. wants to see the Saudi government punish Mohammed Bin Salman, the powerful Saudi crown prince, whom the U.S. Senate has declared was to blame. But the official did say, "I don't think from our point of view" that the Saudi action so far has “yet hit that threshold of credibility and accountability" the administration seeks.