Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

QUESTION:  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, thank you so much for talking to us today, sir.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  It’s great to be with you.  Thanks for having me on.

QUESTION:  The long-awaited peace plan was unveiled today.  We saw you front and center center in the East Room in the White House.  The plan is called Peace to Prosperity.  Can I ask you, sir, what kind of peace can be made in the region if the Palestinians are not part of the deal?  They’re not even showing up to the table.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Well, today, we laid out an offer, an offer that the Palestinians have four years to accept.  It basically takes a basic idea, right?  You’re going to have to have security for Israel, a case that the right of return is something that’s simply not going to be possible, and it lays down based upon ancient history of this important, holy land and the reality, the facts on the ground.  And it tries to deliver a set of outcomes that can deliver a pathway so that you can have a state for the Palestinians, security for the Israelis, and peace and prosperity for all of the people in that place.

QUESTION:  Are you worried by the fact that Jordan says that only – the only path is a two-state solution?  The UN secretary-general also coming out with the same statement, saying the only vision is a two-state based on the 1967 lines.  Does that concern you?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Look, what President Trump laid down today is a vision for how to proceed.  It’s a vision that says if the Palestinians want $50 billion, a million new jobs, that they ought to enter into negotiations based on that vision, where, if there’s a counter offer, if the Palestinians have a different idea about how to proceed, they ought to present that now that they’ve been presented with this pathway forward.

It grants the Palestinians a state that’s conditional upon some really simple things, right, like stopping terrorism, acknowledging Israel as a Jewish state.  These are basic things for peace and prosperity in the region.  You’ve seen Arab states do understand that times are different today.  You saw ambassadors from Bahrain and from Oman and from the Emirates all attend this ceremony today.

This is the reality.  This is the new, modern Middle East.  And our vision relies upon the realities on the ground and the hopefulness that the Palestinian people will decide to choose a path towards prosperity for themselves as well.

QUESTION:  So (inaudible) understand correctly, the Trump administration is giving a green light to Israel to annex all of the settlements in the West Bank.  Is that correct?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  What you’ll see today is you’ll see the full plan laid out, including a conceptual map; when it’s sent to the Israelis that they will agree to negotiate on this basis, is that we’re going to do the things necessary to make sure that they are safe and secure and we don’t create increased risk for them.

At the same time, there’s no change in the status of the Temple Mount.  At the same time, it recognizes that people are living in certain places.  No one – no Israeli, no Palestinian – is required to move as a result of this plan.  These are the things that are laid down in President Trump’s vision for peace, and we do hope – we do hope that both the parties, that both the Israelis and the Palestinian people, will endeavor to take this as a basis for negotiations and begin a conversation about how to deliver on this outcome that has escaped the world for all of these decades.

QUESTION:  You’re saying that no one will have to leave their house, sir, but in the plan itself, it says quite clearly, “The Vision contemplates the possibility, subject to agreement of…parties, that the borders of Israel will be redrawn such that the Triangle Communities become part of the State of Palestine.”

This is something that Arab Israelis, the Palestinians living in Israel, will never agree to.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Well, you say “never.”  They – the parties could make a decision.  What we’ve laid down is a vision.  We’ve laid down a basis for negotiation that the Israelis and the Palestinians might come to an accommodation that varies from what’s laid down today.  We not only expect that that will happen, we think it’s appropriate for them to have this conversation, this discussion.  That’s what a vision is.  It lays down a set of outlines.  It puts down a set of understandings.  And then the parties – the Israelis and the Palestinians – will come – have to come together to finalize that.  I am sure in the course of that there will be things that will vary a bit from what’s been presented today.

QUESTION:  You, the U.S. embassy in Israel, the State Department, put out a security alert telling the personnel, the American personnel in the region, not to go to the Westerners* Bank and not to go to East Jerusalem after this plan was unveiled.  Are you concerned of an option of an eruption of violence in our region because of the plan?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  We always tell citizens that are traveling to take precautions when we’re concerned that there could be some increased risk.  We’ve seen this.  We’ve done this in China over the past few days for the risk of what’s taking place there.  We’ll do that.  We constantly evaluate these things.  We do it literally hour by hour and day by day.

We want to make sure that people, Americans traveling in any region of the world, are safe and secure.  And so on the day that this announcement was made, we wanted to make sure that American citizens were aware that this decision by the President was being announced today and to take a caution – precautions that were appropriately commensurate with that.

QUESTION:  You’re all right with the fact that Israel will bring in a resolution to the prime minister for this Sunday to annex the settlements in the West Bank?  That is fine where the United States is regarded?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  The Israelis will make decisions consistent with Israeli law with respect to that.  Look, what’s been done over the past years, that’s how we’ll continue to operate today.  We’ll look to see how the Israelis handle this.  We’ve seen this in the past.  We’ve seen settlements that Israel has proposed be declared unlawful.  We’ll – Israelis will find their pathway forward on this.

QUESTION:  A final question, sir.  Benny Gantz, the person who wants to be prime minister, you understand that he is on board with this plan?  And will this plan live on even if he is elected prime minister in five weeks?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  So I was there yesterday when General Gantz came to visit with President Trump.  President Trump talked to him about the plan, and General Gantz was excited about it.  He was on board with the plan.  And I am confident.  This is a relationship between the United States and Israel.  I’m very confident that the vision laid out today will continue no matter how the election proceeds on March 2nd of this year.

QUESTION:  Secretary Pompeo, thank you very much for this conversation today.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Thank you very much, ma’am.  Have a great day.

QUESTION:  Thank you.