Pompeo skips visit to Greenland amid new tensions with Iran

Published On: May 9, 2019 01:00 PM NPT By: Associated Press

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, speaks at a joint press conference with Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt at the Foreign Office in central London, Wednesday May 8, 2019. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in London for talks with British officials on the status of the special relationship between the two nations amid heightened tensions with Iran and uncertainty over Britain's exit from the European Union. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)

LONDON, May 9: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has canceled a visit to Greenland to return to Washington amid an escalation of tensions with Iran.

Pompeo had been due to wrap up a trip to Europe on Thursday with a stop in Greenland aimed at promoting the Trump administration’s Arctic policies. Those policies were criticized earlier this week for not containing the words “climate change” when Pompeo attended an Arctic Council meeting in Finland.

The State Department says that Pompeo will still order the restoration of a permanent U.S. diplomatic presence in Greenland.

The Greenland stop was the second Pompeo canceled on what was supposed to be a four-nation tour of Europe. On Tuesday, he abruptly dropped a trip to Germany to fly to Baghdad for meetings with Iraqi leaders.