Mike Pompeo lands in Israel on farewell tour

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives in Israel for a farewell visit as the chief diplomat of the strongly pro-Israeli Trump administration.

Palestinians have protested as Pompeo is expected to become the first US top diplomat to visit a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, where the Psagot vineyard has named one of its wines after him.

Pompeo — who has so far backed Donald Trump in refusing to concede defeat to US President-elect Joe Biden — is on a Europe and Middle East tour that has taken him to France, Turkey and Georgia.

He flies to Israel on the same day as the foreign minister of Bahrain, one of several Arab states that have agreed under US-brokered pacts to normalize relations with the Jewish state. The two are to have a tripartite meeting with the Israeli prime minister.

— with AFP