“Pompeo’s early and quick trip to the region, particularly to Israel, is also a form of station identification that the new secretary of state intends to become a dominant force in Middle East policymaking,” said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official specializing in Middle East issues who is now at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Ahead of Pompeo's arrival, Netanyahu said the talks would focus on "Iran's growing aggression" in the region and the upcoming U.S. decision on the international nuclear agreement with Iran. “Year Two in Trumpland may be a very different place on the foreign policy side,” Miller said, hastening to add, “with one exception — Trump will still sit at the center of it all.”

The May 12 deadline for Trump to decide whether to stick with or leave the Iran nuclear deal was the backdrop to every discussion Pompeo had. Pompeo expressed pride in the administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, a decision that prompted a lopsided vote of condemnation at the United Nations and spurred a handful of nations to move their own embassies to Jerusalem. Pompeo was greeted in Riyadh on Saturday by his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir and was expected to meet Khalid bin Salman, the kingdom's ambassador to the US, as well as attend a working dinner hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the United States will quit the agreement if its "flaws" can't be fixed.