Mike Pompeo, who served as President Donald Trump‘s U.S. Secretary of State and Director of the CIA during his first term in the White House, is criticizing world leaders including the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom (Keir Starmer), Australia (Anthony Albanese) and Canada (Mark Carney) for recognizing a Palestinian state. (Out of 193 U.N. member states, at least 147 now recognize the state of Palestine.) Note: Pompeo co-wrote an op-ed on Monday titled “Recognition of a Palestinian state will only perpetuate a cycle of violence” which was published in the Italian newspaper Le Figaro. Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has yet to recognize the state of Palestine. Meloni said at the U.N. today that Italy will only recognize a Palestinian state when all Israeli hostages are released and the Hamas militant group is excluded from any government role.