Pompeo Praises Prince, Pushes Peace Plan

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday hosted Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in Washington, urging the prince to consider following his Gulf neighbors’ footsteps in normalizing relations with Israel. Pompeo stressed that the agreements signed between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain “reflect a changing dynamic” in the Middle East and will “generate prosperity,” and thanked Riyadh “for the assistance” it’s given so far to aid the success of the accords. Last month, at a historic White House ceremony, the three countries signed the Abraham Accords, agreeing to establish full diplomatic and economic relations. Both Israeli and American diplomats and other officials, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, have since hinted at a number of Arab Gulf nations that were next in line and would shortly join the peace train, with President Trump saying he expected Saudi Arabia – the most powerful and influential of the group – to come around “at the right time.”