Tillerson dismissed as U.S. secretary of state, replaced Pompeo

U.S. President Donald Trump announced in a March 13 tweet
the dismissal of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after 14 months of
service. No official reason was mentioned, but it was well-reported by news
media that Trump and Tillerson had sharply contrasting approaches diplomacy as
Tillerson spent much of his tenure trying to steer Trump towards a conventional
tact, often having his and positions and decisions undermined. Trump overruled
Tillerson on rejecting the Iran nuclear deal, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital, withdrawing from the Paris climate pact and imposing steel and
aluminum import tariffs, reported the politico.com news site.

Among his last acts, Tillerson briefed reporters on
his “outrage” at Russia’s alleged involvement in an attempted assassination
using a nerve agent against a former Russian spy in Britain. “Much work remains
to respond to the troubling behavior and actions on the part of the Russian
government,” he said, before turning to warn Putin’s Kremlin not to overstep,
as reported by the AFP news agency. “Russia must assess carefully as to how its
actions are in the best interests of the Russian people and of the world more
broadly.”

Tillerson was replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo,
who has demonstrated a consistent neo-conservative foreign policy that is based
on the U.S. asserting its global dominance by promoting values of liberal
democracy globally and confronting opponents to the Western order, particularly
Russia, Iran and North Korea. In particular, Pompeo has suggested destroying
Iran’s nuclear capacity by air and supports Trump’s position to reject Obama’s
nuclear deal. He not only suggested regime change for Iran, but North Korea as
well. “In Pompeo, Trump has a hardline hawk who has frequently advocated the
use of force and Trump likes that,” said John Glaser, an expert at the Cato
Institute in Washington.

Pompeo secretly visited Ukraine on March 8 at the
invitation of Security Service of Ukraine Head Vasyl Hrytsak, the dt.ua news
site reported on March 13. They traveled together to territory bordering the Donbas
war zone, the report said, while Radical Party Head Oleh Lyashko said Pompeo
had a secret meeting with Ukrainian President Poroshenko. 

Zenon Zawada: We believe
Pompeo will prove to be the most hawkish U.S. secretary of state on Russia
since Condoleezza Rice a decade ago. The evidence is that he’s just as hawkish
on Russia as Iran and North Korea, having described the Putin regime at his
January 2017 U.S. Senate confirmation hearing as a leading threat to the U.S.
that “has reasserted itself aggressively, invading and occupying Ukraine,
threatening Europe.” His clandestine recent visit confirms that he views
Ukraine as a top foreign policy priority and understands the threat posed by
Russia to the Anglo-American order, particularly in the spheres of
cybersecurity and information warfare.

We expect Pompeo to extend full support for the
plans of U.S. lawmakers to intensify sanctions against Russia. We expect he
will support efforts to provide more defensive weapons for Ukraine. We also
believe the increasingly hawkish position of the Trump administration against
Russia poses the threat of provoking the Kremlin to consider expanding its
warfare.