Mike Pompeo - The African Mirror

Jan

2021

In parting shot, Trump accuses China of ‘genocide’

HUMEYRA PAMUK THE Trump administration has determined that China has committed "genocide and crimes against humanity" by repressing Uighur Muslims in its Xinjiang region, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has revealed, delivering an embarrassing blow to Beijing a day before U.S. president-elect Joe Biden is set to take office. Pompeo said he made the move - which is certain to strain further already frayed ties between the world's top economies - "after careful examination of the available facts," accusing the Chinese Communist Party of crimes against humanity against the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities since at least March 2017. "I…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Pompeo says U.S. began work to set up consulate in Western Sahara

NEWS

THE U.S. State has begun the process to set up a U.S. consulate in Western Sahara after President Donald Trump's administration this month recognized Morocco's sovereignty over the region. In a departure from longstanding U.S. policy, Washington agreed to recognize Morocco's sovereignty over the Western Sahara, a desert region where a decades-old territorial dispute has pitted Morocco against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a breakaway movement that seeks to establish an independent state. The recognition was part of a U.S.-brokered deal in which Morocco became the fourth Arab country after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan to normalize ties with…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

U.S. remove Sudan from terrorism list on Monday

NEWS

KHALID ABDELAZIZ THE U.S. has removed Sudan from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, ending a designation in place since 1993 that has weighed on the Sudanese economy and curbed financial assistance. The delisting provides a boost to transitional authorities that took over after the ouster of former President Omar al-Bashir last year and are grappling with a deep economic crisis. A 45-day U.S. Congressional review period followed President Donald Trump's announcement that he would end the listing, days before he announced that Israel and Sudan intend to normalise relations. "This achievement was…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Sudan rejects linking removal from U.S. terrorism list with Israel ties

NEWS

SUDAN does not want to link its removal from a U.S. terrorism list that is hindering access to foreign funding for the country's economy with normalisation of relations with Israel, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has said. Sources said this week that U.S. officials indicated in talks with a Sudanese delegation they wanted Khartoum to follow the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and open ties with Israel. Sudan's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism dates back to its toppled ruler Omar al-Bashir, and makes it difficult for its new transitional government to access urgently needed debt relief and foreign financing.…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Pompeo discusses Libyan conflict, Iran with UAE counterpart

NEWS

06U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the Libyan conflict and countering Iranian regional influence with his Emirati counterpart during a brief visit to the United Arab Emirates. The visit followed a U.S. brokered-accord this month, which saw the UAE become just the third Arab state to agree to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel. Pompeo, who this week also visited Jerusalem, Sudan and Bahrain, sought to build on the momentum of the agreement for regional peace, he said in a tweet after arriving in the UAE. Pompeo and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan spoke about support…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Sudan PM tells Pompeo he’s not authorised to normalise ties with Israel

NEWS

KHALID ABDELAZIZ SUDANESE Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday that he was not mandated to normalise ties with Israel, and the issue should not be linked to Sudan's removal from a U.S. state sponsor of terrorism list. Pompeo arrived from Israel on what he said was the first official non-stop flight between the two countries, as the United States looks to strengthen Sudan-Israel ties. He met Hamdok and ruling council head Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, tweeting that Sudan's democratic transition was a "once in a generation opportunity". He discussed the Sudan-Israel relationship with…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

US isolated in the UN Security Council

WORLD

MICHELLE NICHOLS THE United States has been further isolated over its bid to reimpose international sanctions on Iran with 13 countries on the 15-member U.N. Security Council expressing their opposition, arguing that Washington's move is void given it is using a process agreed under a nuclear deal that it quit two years ago. In the 24 hours since U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he triggered a 30-day countdown to a return of U.N. sanctions on Iran, including an arms embargo, long-time allies Britain, France, Germany and Belgium as well as China, Russia, Vietnam, Niger, Saint Vincent and the…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Pompeo urges more assertive approach to ‘Frankenstein’ China

WORLD

DAVID BRUNNSTROM and DAPHNE PSALEDAKIS U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took a fresh aim at China and said Washington and its allies must use "more creative and assertive ways" to press the Chinese Communist Party to change its ways, calling it the "mission of our time." Speaking at the Nixon Library in President Richard Nixon's birthplace in Yorba Linda, California, Pompeo said the former U.S. leader's worry about what he had done by opening the world to China's Communist Party in the 1970s had been prophetic. "President Nixon once said he feared he had created a 'Frankenstein' by opening…