US President Donald Trump has sacked Rex Tillerson as
secretary of state, citing differences, and replaced him with Mike Pompeo, CIA
director.
The move by Trump is the biggest
shake-up of his cabinet since taking office.
"Mike
Pompeo, director of the CIA, will become our new secretary of state. He will do
a fantastic job," Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
"Thank
you to Rex Tillerson for his service!"
According
to the Washington Post, Trump asked Tillerson to leave the post last
Friday.
Tillerson cut short his trip to Africa on
Monday and returned to Washington, DC, prompting questions about his future at
the state department.
In a statement on Tuesday, Trump said that "a great deal has
been accomplished over the last 14 months" with Tillerson as top US diplomat.
Trump also said on Twitter that Gina Hapsel, CIA deputy
director, will replace Pompeo as the head of the agency. He added that she
is "the first woman so chosen".
Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA,
will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you
to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of
the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!
Reports surfaced last
October that Trump was looking to replace Tillerson with
Pompeo.
Tillerson, a former top executive of the energy giant Exxon, took
office on February 1, 2017.
The US president
and now-outgoing secretary of state have not seen eye-to-eye on a range of
issues, including the Iran nuclear
deal and the Gulf crisis.
We disagreed on things," Trump said outside the White House
on Tuesday, adding that the pair "were not really thinking the same".
Tillerson has criticised Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and
Egypt - which cut diplomatic and trade
ties with Qatar on June 5, 2017 - from the onset.
He urged the Gulf states to ease the blockade,
which contradicted what appeared to be Trump's initial support for
the move.
On the Iran nuclear deal, Tillerson has repeatedly had to dispel
speculation that Trump would completely scrap the agreement.
In January, Tillerson said the US was working on a plan "to
fix" the accord, which Trump has called the "worst deal ever".
Juan Cole, a visiting professor at Qatar University, said Trump's
move "is not a surprise.
"This is a pattern with Trump," Cole told Al Jazeera.
"When he does not like someone, when he feels the person is
not personally loyal to him, he fires him very publicly and in a way to
humiliate him."
According to US media, Trump also wanted to have a new team in place
before any meetings between the administration and North Korea began.
"The president wanted to make sure to have his new team in
place in advance of the upcoming talk with North Korea," AFP news agency
quoted an unnamed, senior US official as saying.
Last week, it was revealed that Trump had accepted an invitation to
meet North Korea's Kim Jong-un,
following a months-long diplomatic standoff that saw the two leaders exchange
fiery military threats and personal insults.
Lawrence Korb, former assistant secretary of defence, said that
Trump's decision to dismiss Tillerson is "evidence of poor judgement.
"It will be very hard for Director Pompeo to be confirmed and
be in charge by the time they have this meeting, which will be in less than two
months," Korb told Al Jazeera.
"And it's not just a question of Pompeo. The question is what
other people do you have? For example, we don't have any ambassador to South
Korea yet. The person in the state department in charge of North Korea retired
in February."
Iran deal critic
Trump said in a statement on Tuesday that Pompeo has a
"proven record of working across the aisle".
He added: "I have gotten to know Mike very well over the past
14 months, and I am confident he is the right person for the job at this
critical juncture."
He told reporters outside the White House that he and Pompeo
"have a similar thought process".
Pompeo has been a controversial figure
since first becoming a Congress member from Kansas in 2010.