US Vice President Mike Pence has delayed a visit to the
Middle East, the White House said on Monday, as a crunch tax vote on
Capitol Hill looms and anger in the region over Washington's policy
shift on Jerusalem persists.
The trip to Egypt and
Israel, due to begin Tuesday, has been pushed back to mid-January,
allowing Pence to remain in Washington in case he needs to cast the
deciding vote in the Senate over President Donald Trump's tax reforms.
“The
tax vote is still in very good shape, but we don't want to take any
chances whatsoever,” said a senior administration official.
Senator
John McCain's return home to Arizona to fight cancer has left
Republicans with a razor-thin margin to push the legislation over the
finishing line.
Having failed to clear a series of
legislative hurdles, the package is seen as key to Trump's ability to
secure support among his base and skittish political donors.
“We
have some senators who obviously can't make it there for the vote and
the vice president feels that it's important for him to be here for the
largest tax cut in history,” the official said.
The
House of Representatives is expected to vote on the package on Tuesday
with the Senate vote to follow late Tuesday or early on Wednesday.
'All about' tax cuts
Officials denied that Pence's decision was motivated by a
wave of deadly protests in the wake of Trump's controversial decision to
declare Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
“This is all
about the largest tax cut in American history and having the vice
president and the full team here,” the official said.
“It's
an odd case to make given we are going to be there in two or three
weeks,” a second senior White House official said, slapping down
suggestions of a delay.
Breaking with decades of US policy, Trump also said on December 6 that he would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Aside
from the protests, Palestinian, Muslim and Coptic leaders had cancelled
meetings with the vice president, who had already trimmed the trip by
three days.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah
faction had called for a massive demonstration to coincide with Pence's
visit and ruled out meeting him in Ramallah or Bethlehem.
The
fallout continued Monday as the United States was forced to veto a
draft UN resolution rejecting Trump's Jerusalem move, after all 14 other
Security Council members — including allies like Britain — voted for
the measure.
The text was introduced by Egypt, where
Pence had been scheduled to arrive Wednesday for talks with President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Pence had also planned to address the Knesset, visit the Western Wall and meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Now
were are going to look at January and the trip may even be a little
bigger. We'll obviously still go to Egypt and Israel, but we may add
additional countries,” the official said.
