Overseas Network, January 14 Recently, the outgoing Secretary of State Pompeo repeatedly made controversial diplomatic moves in an attempt to “dig a hole in the foreign affairs of the new government”.
NBC commented on the 13th, saying Pompeo casually labeled foreign countries or foreign organizations as terrorism, describing this behavior as “banana skin” for the Biden administration’s diplomatic path.
The excerpt from the article is as follows:
After the violent shock to Congress, one may think that Pompeo will be busy repairing the battered international image of the United States.
However, as the highest-ranking diplomat in the United States, in addition to publishing hundreds of tweets to try to improve his reputation, he also characterized countries or foreign organizations that he did not like as “terrorists”.
On the 10th, Pompeo announced that the Houthi organization in Yemen would be designated as a “terrorist organization”, followed by Cuba as a “state supporting terrorism” the next day.
The former put pressure on Iran that supports Houthi, making Biden’s difficult plan to return the United States to the Iran nuclear agreement, and what is more infuriating is his actions against Cuba.
While Pompeo accused Cuba of “sheltering terrorists”, the United States has turned a blind eye to other countries with similar actions for many years, which will have a clear impact on Cuba’s tourism-based economy.
Pompeo’s move is undoubtedly to give Trump, who is leaving the White House, a farewell gift, and it also caused many difficulties for Biden’s new administration, paying millions of innocent people an unnecessary and huge price.
After characterizing regional Houthis as international terrorist organizations, Pompeo will bring a humanitarian crisis to more than 16 million people living in the area controlled by Houthis. Organizations that provide humanitarian assistance to these areas may face criminal charges.
Pompeo knew that these decisions would leave a mess for his successor, because the Trump administration did not characterize Houthis as a terrorist organization two years ago because of fears that it would affect humanitarian assistance.
Moreover, Pompeo’s irresponsible practices have far more impact than Yemen and Cuba. His blatant abuse of the term “terrorism” will weaken the effectiveness of the word.
While Biden could change Pompeo’s decision after taking office, it would lead to a chaotic and time-consuming review process that cost a lot of public taxes and political capital.
However, all this is exactly what Pompeo wants to see, because it will cause dissatisfaction with Biden and hinder his foreign affairs agenda. Pompeo’s “diplomatic sabotage” is obviously deliberate and naive.
