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Pompeo Turns Page on Obama’s Middle East Policies

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to students at the American University Cairo, in the eastern suburb of New Cairo, east of the capital on 10 January, 2019. AFP
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to students at the American University Cairo, in the eastern suburb of New Cairo, east of the capital on 10 January, 2019. AFP
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Pompeo Turns Page on Obama’s Middle East Policies

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to students at the American University Cairo, in the eastern suburb of New Cairo, east of the capital on 10 January, 2019. AFP
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to students at the American University Cairo, in the eastern suburb of New Cairo, east of the capital on 10 January, 2019. AFP

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a scathing rebuke of the Obama administration's Mideast policies on Thursday, accusing the former president of spreading chaos in the Middle East.

In a speech at the American University in Cairo, Pompeo held Barack Obama responsible for chaos after failing to confront radicals appropriately.

But the secretary did not mention Obama by name.

“He told you that the United States and the Muslim world needed 'a new beginning.' The results of these misjudgments have been dire," said Pompeo about the former president.

Obama had given a speech in Cairo in 2009 in which he spoke of "a new beginning" for US relations with countries in the Arab and Muslim world.

Pompeo's speech came on the third leg of a nine-nation Mideast tour aimed at reassuring America's Arab partners that the Trump administration is not walking away from the region amid confusion and concern over plans to withdraw US forces from Syria.

“The Trump administration is also working to establish the Middle East Strategic Alliance to confront the region’s most serious threat and bolster energy and economic cooperation,” said Pompeo.

Airstrikes against ISIS in the region “will continue as targets arise,” he told the audience.

“It is important to know also that we will not ease our campaign to stop Iran’s malevolent influence and actions against this region and the world. The nations of the Middle East will never enjoy security, achieve economic stability, or advance the dreams of their people if Iran’s revolutionary regime persists on its current course,” he said.

Earlier, Pompeo met separately with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Shoukry, Pompeo said that the US remained a steadfast partner in the Middle East.

He stressed the troop pullout from Syria would go ahead, despite recent comments appearing to walk back on US President Donald Trump's decision, but said Washington would remain engaged.

"We will withdraw our forces, our uniformed forces, from Syria and continue America's crushing campaign," Pompeo said at the press conference.

On Thursday evening, the US official visited the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ and the Al-Fattah Al-Alim mosque in Egypt's New Administrative Capital, 45 kilometers east of the capital.

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Arab World

Lebanon Security Source Says Hezbollah Official Targeted in Beirut Strike

Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
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Lebanon Security Source Says Hezbollah Official Targeted in Beirut Strike

Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

A Lebanese security source said the target of a deadly Israeli airstrike on central Beirut early Saturday was a senior Hezbollah official, adding it was unclear whether he was killed.

"The Israeli strike on Basta targeted a leading Hezbollah figure," the security official told AFP without naming the figure, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The early morning airstrike has killed at least 15 people and injured 63, according to authorities, and had brought down an eight-storey building nearby, in the second such attack on the working-class neighbourhood of Basta in as many months.

"The strike was so strong it felt like the building was about to fall on our heads," said Samir, 60, who lives with his family in a building facing the one that was hit.

"It felt like they had targeted my house," he said, asking to be identified by only his first name because of security concerns.

There had been no evacuation warning issued by the Israeli military for the Basta area.

After the strike, Samir fled his home in the middle of the night with his wife and two children, aged 14 and just three.

On Saturday morning, dumbstruck residents watched as an excavator cleared the wreckage of the razed building and rescue efforts continued, with nearby buildings also damaged in the attack, AFP journalists reported.

The densely packed district has welcomed people displaced from traditional Hezbollah bastions in Lebanon's east, south and southern Beirut, after Israel intensified its air campaign on September 23, later sending in ground troops.

"We saw two dead people on the ground... The children started crying and their mother cried even more," Samir told AFP, reporting minor damage to his home.

Since last Sunday, four deadly Israeli strikes have hit central Beirut, including one that killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.

Residents across the city and its outskirts awoke at 0400 (0200 GMT) on Saturday to loud explosions and the smell of gunpowder in the air.

"It was the first time I've woken up screaming in terror," said Salah, a 35-year-old father of two who lives in the same street as the building that was targeted.

"Words can't express the fear that gripped me," he said.

Saturday's strikes were the second time the Basta district had been targeted since war broke out, after deadly twin strikes early in October hit the area and the Nweiri neighbourhood.

Last month's attacks killed 22 people and had targeted Hezbollah security chief Wafiq Safa, who made it out alive, a source close to the group told AFP.

Salah said his wife and children had been in the northern city of Tripoli, about 70 kilometres away (45 miles), but that he had to stay in the capital because of work.

His family had been due to return this weekend because their school reopens on Monday, but now he has decided against it following the attack.

"I miss them. Every day they ask me: 'Dad, when are we coming home?'" he said.

Lebanon's health ministry says that more than 3,650 people have been killed since October 2023, after Hezbollah initiated exchanges of fire with Israel in solidarity with its Iran-backed ally Hamas over the Gaza war.

However, most of the deaths in Lebanon have been since September this year.

Despite the trauma caused by Saturday's strike, Samir said he and his family had no choice but to return home.

"Where else would I go?" he asked.

"All my relatives and siblings have been displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs and from the south."