JERUSALEM (AP) - The Latest on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to the Middle East (all times local):
6:30 p.m.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has given Israel’s leader a welcome boost at the height of a tight re-election campaign.
Pompeo appeared alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday, praising the warm ties between Israel and the U.S. and voicing tough words against Israel’s arch-enemy, Iran.
Pompeo touted last month’s Mideast conference in Warsaw, where he said dozens of countries discussed ways to stop “Iran’s regional rampage.”
Pompeo arrived as the White House announced that it will host Netanyahu over two days next week.
Netanyahu praised the U.S. stance against Iran and said he expects to discuss ways to take even tougher action against Iran during his talks with President Donald Trump next week.
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Noon
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is renewing calls for a resolution to a festering dispute between Qatar and four other Arab nations, all America’s Mideast partners.
On a visit to Kuwait, Pompeo says the crisis that has roiled the Gulf Cooperation Council for almost two years is hindering efforts to combat regional threats posed by Iran, the Islamic State group and others.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates began a boycott of Qatar in June 2017, alleging that Qatar funds extremists and has too-cozy ties to Iran. Qatar has long denied funding extremists, but Doha shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran.
Pompeo is in Kuwait on the first leg of a Mideast tour that will take him next to Israel and Lebanon.
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