In an interview with Dillon Burroughs and Joe Kerr of “A View From The Wall” on CSN Radio, Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo said that he was “envious” of his interviewers because they were in Jerusalem. When asked how to get Christians to pray for Israel, Pompeo said that he would encourage all Americans to visit Israel and see their faith’s holy sites as well as where ‘Jesus walked’:

Well, first of all, I’m envious. It’s a amazing, important, historic, and holy city. I’ve had the incredible privilege to go there. I’ve traveled there with my wife and son, too, to see the historic sites of my faith as you’re doing this week. It is always something special, and I would encourage Americans who have the opportunity to go see those places and to experience our Christian tradition. The reality of where Jesus walked would be something I would encourage every American to take the opportunity to do.

Second, I’d just ask everyone to pray that there will be a political resolution to this conflict. The Israeli people, the democracy in the Middle East deserve the security and peace that will come from that political resolution, and we brook no ill will to the Palestinians. We want them to have a better life as well. We want a solution that will work for their sustained peace and economic prosperity as well.

Pompeo also said that the EU was wrong regarding their interpretation of international law on Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria saying:

The legal analysis that the EU performed we just think is wrong. We think they have an improper analysis of the international law surrounding this. So as the technical legal matter, Ms. Mogherini just – she’s just wrong. And so we are doing our level best to demonstrate to them our legal theory, our understandings, and why it is that we’re convinced that under international law these settlements are not per se illegal. So we’re working that element of it as well.

This statement comes about a month after Popmeo reversed a long-standing US stance on settlements saying that they aren’t illegal under international law.