US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agreed with a suggestion posed in an interview Thursday that it’s possible God raised Donald Trump to be President of America in order to protect Israel from Iran.
In an interview in Jerusalem, the Christian Broadcast Network’s Chris Mitchell asked Pompeo, “could it be that President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?” Esther is the main heroine of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which was celebrated this week.
“As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo added that he is “confident that the Lord is at work here” when he sees the “remarkable history of the faith in this place and the work that our administration’s done to make sure that this democracy in the Middle East, that this Jewish state, remains.”
The remarks came shortly after Trump announced that the US will recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, overturning longstanding US policy toward the area, which was seized from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967.
“After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!,” Trump tweeted 21 March, 2019.
Following the announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Trump by phone to thank him. “You made history,” his office quoted him telling the US president.
Following Trump’s tweet, Secretary Pompeo called the decision bold and said: “The people of Israel should know that the battles they fought and the lives they lost on that very ground were important and worthy.”
Pompeo is not the first prominent Trump administration official to suggest that God wanted the New York real estate mogul to become president. In January, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told CBN, “that’s why he’s there.”
At a meeting Wednesday with Pompeo in Jerusalem, Netanyahu accused Iran of attempting to set up a terrorist network to target Israel from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967. He used the incident to repeat his goal of international recognition for Israel’s claim on the area.
“I think, for this reason, and many more, it is time that the international community recognizes Israel’s stay on the Golan, and the fact that the Golan will always remain part of the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Iran, Russia, Syria, UN Respond To Trump Decision
Syria slammed Donald Trump’s statement that it was time to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights as “irresponsible” on Friday morning, saying that it confirms “the blind bias of the United States to the Zionist entity,” referring to Israel.
In a statement published by the Syrian state news agency, a senior foreign ministry source said Syria was determined to recover the area “through all available means.”
The source added that Trump’s statement won’t change “the fact that the Golan was and will remain Arab and Syrian.”
Elsewhere, Russia’s Foreign Ministry also responded Friday morning, saying that a change in the status of the Golan Heights would be a direct violation of United Nations decisions.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Trump’s statement has brought the region to the edge of a new crisis. “We cannot allow the legitimization of the occupation of the Golan Heights,” Erdogan added, speaking at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, meanwhile, said Trump’s declaration is illegal and unacceptable. “This illegal and unacceptable recognition does not change the fact that it belongs to Syria,” spokesman Bahram Qasemi said, cited by state TV.
Agencies contributed to this report
