Macron said U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo first met with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian at the Elyseo presidential palace and then met Macron himself.
Neither aspect said much in advance about Pompeo’s discreet trip to Paris, the starting point for a tour of seven countries in Europe and the Middle East.
The goals of Pompeo’s three days in Paris in the midst of the pandemic are unclear.
French presidential advisers pressured Pompeo to request the assembly with Macron and to be granted “in complete transparency with the team of President-elect Joe Biden. “
No press convention was scheduled, ruling out the option for hounds to ask Pompeo or Macron about their conflicting perspectives on the OUTCOME of the US election.
The most sensible American diplomat has been criticized for his attitude toward the president as he investigates his unfounded accusations of voter fraud.
“There will be an elegant transition to a moment in the Trump administration,” Pompeo told reporters moments after uttering his last week.
World leaders, however, have shown no doubts about who the winner is, macron being one of the first to congratulate Biden and communicate with him by phone.
Pompeo criticized such approaches to Biden and told Fox News that such calls to Biden were reprehensible if it were to “just say “hello. “
“But make no mistake, we have a president, a secretary of state, one national security at a time,” he said.
A senior State Department official asked if Pompeo would insist that Trump remain in power, said the former CIA director had a “broad strategy” to pursue the United States and that he “remains the secretary of state. “
Persistent disagreements
Unlike other EU leaders, Macron sought from the outset to convince Trump, making him the guest of honor at the July 14 celebrations in Paris in 2017, one that included a dinner with his spouses at the time on the grounds of the Eiffel Tower.
But analysts say the French leader has little to show for his efforts, as Trump pulled the United States out of the historic 2015 Paris climate agreement and the two leaders are also blocking Iran, industry and taxes from virtual giants.
“The strong relations between our countries cannot be overrated and I look forward to my discussions here in Paris,” Pompeo tweeted shortly after his arrival on Saturday.
But there’s plenty of room for friction.
Le Drian said Friday that he would have considerations with France, which has been hit by a series of jihadist attacks, about Trump’s plans to push for the withdrawal of U. S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We do not believe this will happen,” Le Drian said in a television interview.
EU leaders must also save a foreign deal won with effort to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which Trump set aside at the beginning of his tenure.
A senior Trump administration official told reporters that Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy on Iran’s historic enemy “was going to end in the coming months. “
Farewell tour?
Pompeo, who had the seal of a farewell excursion that dared not say his name, had no official engagement in Paris over the weekend, which he spent with his wife Susan.
Before Monday’s meetings with Macron and his chancellor, Pompeo attended a monument to the victims of terrorism at a monument in Paris, the Hotel des Invalides, where he deposited a bouquet of red, white and blue flowers.
From Paris, he heads to Istanbul, where his plan has already caused friction.
Pompeo’s only announced assembly with Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the non-secular leader of the Orthodox Greek global, to talk about devout freedom, a key theme for the Evangelical Christian Pompeo.
In Jerusalem, Pompeo will see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is Trump’s spouse but also congratulated Biden.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz and the online news page Axios, Pompeo will be the first secretary of state to make a stop at one of the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, considered illegal in practically all other countries, and also to make a stop in the Golan Heights, whose annexation through Israel was identified through Trump.
Pompeo will also do So Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Georgia.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)