Aftandilian in The Conversation on Pompeo’s Rise
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, wrote a recent Op-Ed examining how CIA Director Mike Pompeo, President Donald Trump’s choice to replace Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, could impact the administration’s Middle East policy.
Aftandilian published a March 14, 2018 Op-Ed in The Conversation entitled “Pompeo’s Rise Will Make Mideast War More Likely.”
From the text of the Op-Ed:
After U.S. president Donald Trump fired his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, many analysts have focused on how this high-level ouster took place: unceremoniously, on Twitter, not in a face-to-face meeting.
As a former Middle East analyst at the State Department, though, I think the real drama of replacing America’s top diplomat lies in the foreign policy implications. Trump has tapped Mike Pompeo, the hawkish CIA director and former Kansas congressman, to replace Tillerson.
In 2015, Pompeo voted against a deal that the Obama administration negotiated to remove some international economic sanctions on Iran. In exchange, Iran would significantly scale back its nuclear program and submit to intrusive international inspections.
Tillerson’s departure means the Iran nuclear deal is in trouble.
And if Trump scraps it, I fear the whole Middle East could erupt in conflict.
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999).