TEHRAN, July 27, YJC - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson denied rumors about his possible resignation, saying he will keep the job as long as President Donald Trump wants him to.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - "I'm not going anywhere," Tillerson said during a photo op with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Wednesday. Asked how long he was going to stay, he firmly said, "As long as the president lets me."
The rumors of a pending “Rexit” were first spread around by CNN last week, when the network cited sources out of the White House in claiming that the top US diplomat was frustrated with Trump’s different viewpoints on important foreign policy matters.
The difference of opinion has been most evident in Trump and Tillerson’s views on the ongoing diplomatic fallout between the Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
While Tillerson has been openly defending Qatar in the diplomatic crisis, Trump has backed claims by Riyadh and its allies that Doha supports terrorism and wants to destabilize the region.
Besides policy differences, the CNN wrote, Tillerson was fed up with Trump’s recent attacks against US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Trump is mad at the attorney general over his recusal of a high-profile investigation into the president and his associates’ possible “collusion” with Russia.
"Sessions should have never recused himself and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else," he told the New York Times last week.
He renewed the attack on Monday, blasting his “beleaguered AG” for not launching an investigation into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and her alleged ties to Russia.
Some sources also suggested that Tillerson and Trump were at the opposing sides of the arguments when it came to recertifying Iran's commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal.
Despite all the allegations, however, Tillerson said Wednesday that his relationship with Trump was "good."
The former ExxonMobil CEO’s office said Tuesday that he was taking a few days off after a tasking travel schedule, Presstv reported.
Upon making the announcement, the department’s spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, refused to directly address the rumors and only told reporters that the decision-making process at the White House involved many advisers “who may not agree on different situations.”
“Ultimately, the president is in charge of this country. He decides. He’s the boss. And I’ll just leave it at that,” she said.
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