US Vice President Pence begins Middle East trip in Egypt

US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Cairo Saturday at the start of a three-day Middle East trip for promoting administration policies in the region. He travels Sunday to Jordan and then spends two days in Israel, during which he will address the Knesset. The Palestinians and their leader Mahmoud Abbas have said that the US vice president is not welcome in Ramallah. Pence has undertaken to advance the situation of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East. In Israel, the vice president will discuss the impact of President Trump’s decisions to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and slash by nearly half US contributions to UNRWA projects for Palestinian refugees. Abbas left Ramallah and flew to Brussels for meetings with European officials who are against the Trump administration’s policies.