Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

QUESTION:  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, thank you for doing this interview.

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

QUESTION:  This is a definitely a big day, a meaningful day.  And we heard what the President said, we started reading the plan, and I was wondering:  How much was Israel involved in drafting this peace plan?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  So we worked with a lot of countries, people from all across the region, not just with the Israelis.  We attempted to work with the Palestinians; we worked with Arab states.  We took on board the history of the place, the Arab Peace Initiative, all those proposals that had come before us but had not been successful.  So we listened to a lot of different ideas.  We incorporated many of them and tried to deliver a plan based on the amazing history of this holy land and the reality on the ground today that both the Israelis and the Palestinians can use as a basis for beginning their negotiations.

QUESTION:  Because it seems that you got much more input from Israel than from the Palestinians.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  We talked with lots of different countries.  We talked with the Jordanians, the Egyptians.  The list was very long.  It took us a while to get all of that done, but we ultimately got to a place where President Trump could make this announcement today that we believe provides the most detailed, comprehensive plan that has ever been presented, and the best opportunity for the Palestinians.  A real offer sits on the table for the Palestinians.  All they need to do is say yes.  We’re prepared to begin negotiations based on this vision, and many good things will happen for the Palestinian people.  We can start the process towards them having the state that they say they have wanted for all of these years.

QUESTION:  We have elections on March 2nd.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Yes, just a month off.

QUESTION:  Yeah.  I still remember that we talked about what are going to be the results in the first round.  You saw Benny Gantz was here in town.  Are you concerned that after the Israeli elections there might be another prime minister and then it will be a problem to implement the plan because there’s a new government?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  No, I’m not concerned.  This is a – President Trump’s vision.  When General Gantz visited with President Trump yesterday, I was there.  I listened to General Gantz talk about this plan, and he said he thought it made sense, it was something he would be happy to engage in, and something he thought would make real sense for Israel in that it continued to provide the security that the Israeli needed  It didn’t change the status quo on the Temple Mount, all the things that can form a basis for the beginning of a negotiation, a vision that is based in reality and facts that has a real opportunity for security and prosperity for the Israelis as well as for the Palestinians.

QUESTION:  What was your impression of Mr. Gantz?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  General Gantz was serious.  He was focused on talking about this, but also very much wanted to share with President Trump his vision for how he would lead Israel if he were the one that became the prime minister.

QUESTION:  Prime Minister Netanyahu announced right after President Trump’s speech that he will bring to the cabinet on Sunday a resolution to annex the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea, and all the settlements in the West Bank.  Is this something that the Trump administration would support?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  The Israelis will proceed under Israeli law to begin to work consistent with what we’ve laid down in this vision.  We’ve set markers for the things that we know are acceptable, and in exchange for that – you heard Prime Minister Netanyahu say this – he’s prepared, if the Palestinians agree, to negotiate based on this vision, to for four years take lands that are demarcated – and the map is available for everyone to see – lands that are demarcated there, and for four years hold those for a future Palestinian state.

All the Palestinians need to do is a few simple things, things we ask of just about every nation in the world – to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, to stop terrorism, basic fundamental things.  And then the lives of the Palestinian people can be improved dramatically.  I hope that they’ll decide to negotiate on the basis of President Trump’s vision.

QUESTION:  So just to make sure, you support the Israeli Government annexing the Jordan Valley and all the settlements in the West Bank?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  The Israelis will do this consistent with Israeli law.  The president – excuse me, Prime Minister Netanyahu has accepted this vision, and you will see how we laid down where the various boundaries are in the maps that are presented in the outline of President Trump’s vision.

QUESTION:  The Jordanian Government, King Abdullah and other senior Jordanian officials, warned that if Israel annexes the Jordan Valley, it could blow up the peace agreement, the peace agreement that the U.S. is a party to.  Are you concerned of such a scenario?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Well, I don’t want to get into hypotheticals.  I’m confident that what we laid out today, President Trump’s vision for how this will move forward, presents a sound basis to begin negotiations.  When you talk about negotiations, that means there’ll have to be compromise, there’ll have to be – the parties will have to work on different pieces of this puzzle to get to an outcome.  We don’t pretend that we have it perfect.  We only know this:  This is historic.  This is the first time there has been a real offer with a real map, that the Israelis have agreed to, that presents an opportunity for an expansion of the Palestinian prosperity – $50 billion, a million jobs, and a capital in East Jerusalem that the United States would put its embassy in.

These are real offers for the Palestinians, and ones I hope that they will take seriously.  They are meant sincerely.  And we’d ask the Palestinians to think on this, to look at it – we’ve given them plenty of time; they don’t have to do this today or tomorrow or next week – and consider whether this is something that makes sense.  I hope the Palestinian leadership will do it.  I know that the Palestinian people will.

QUESTION:  But we heard what Palestinian President Abbas said today.  He said that it’s a “deal of shame,” he rejected it.  Do you even think it’s realistic that the Palestinians will go back to the table?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  The Palestinian people know the conditions that they live in today.  They know when they evaluate this, when they get a chance to take a breath and stare at what we’ve presented, that this is a real opportunity, one that’s better than any of the opportunities that had been presented before, and it may well be one of the final opportunities that they have to get this right.

I hope that they’ll consider.  I hope that they’ll evaluate it.  I hope they’ll take it seriously.  I hope they’ll then present a counteroffer if what’s presented isn’t acceptable.  That’s how this ought to move forward, and I hope that they’ll do that.  We’ll see.  It will obviously be up to the Palestinian people to make that decision, but it is something that is presented by President Trump in good faith.

QUESTION:  President Trump tried to reach the Palestinian President Abbas over the phone to talk to him the last few years – few days.  Abu Mazen didn’t take the call.  Do you know what exactly happened there?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  I don’t want to talk about conversations that may or may not have taken place between the Palestinians and the Americans over the last days.  When I was the CIA director, I spent a fair amount of time in the West Bank.  I came to know President Abbas.  I came to know the Palestinian leadership.  I hope that as the hours and days proceed, they’ll take a look at this and conclude that this is something that would make sense for their people to begin to evaluate and then consider as a path forward for the Palestinian people.

QUESTION:  Just last question.  There are some in the U.S. here and in Israel who claim that this plan put forward by President Trump and what Netanyahu said afterwards show that it’s mostly about domestic politics, both here in America and in Israel as part of the election campaign.  What do you make of this?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  There will always be critics and cynics.  This doesn’t surprise me.  I watched as this work’s been done over years.  This began long before the Israeli elections were contemplated and long before there was an American election coming up in this year.  It took us a while, as we discussed at the beginning of the interview.  We canvassed lots of different voices, all the professionals – the Americans who had worked on this before.  We heard from every voice.  It took us a while to get it together, and we presented it the moment we believed we had it in a place that it provided this fundamentally realistic foundation to begin the conversation, and to set out a vision upon which the Israelis have now agreed to negotiate, and we hope that the Palestinians will.

QUESTION:  You want to take a guess against about the results of the Israeli elections?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  No.  I don’t know – I don’t recall what I said last time.  I don’t want to take that risk again.  (Laughter.)

QUESTION:  No, you asked me what my guess was.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  The – I am confident the Israeli people will have a good election, and I hope it’s one that resolves in a way that gets an Israeli Government in place.  I think that’d be good for the Israeli people.

QUESTION:  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, thank you very much for this interview.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Thank you very much, sir.

QUESTION:  Thank you.