Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a flurry of phone calls on Thursday with his counterparts in Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to discuss Iran and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pompeo discussed Iran’s “destabilizing behavior” according to US readouts of three separate calls with Qatari Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Kuwaiti Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser al-Mohammad Al Sabah and Emirati Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Pompeo also thanked Qatar for its “support in repatriating American citizens” and discussed “continuing efforts to support Americans and Kuwaitis returning home in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic” with Al Sabah as well as bilateral efforts “to contain and mitigate” the coronavirus with Sheikh Abdullah.
Why it matters: While the readouts of all three calls emphasized the COVID-19 discussion over Iran, the discussions took place after 11 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ships harassed six US vessels in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday at dangerously close ranges. The tit-for-tat between US forces and Iran-backed proxies in Iraq has continued since President Donald Trump’s January assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
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