US Secretary of State holds press conference without US press

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held a press conference in Saudi Arabia, but the US press was not informed of it.

Mr Tillerson has been travelling with Donald Trump on the president’s first foreign trip and Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir invited him to participate in a news conference on 21 May with members of the foreign media, according to State Department spokesperson RC Hammond.

“Regrettably, there was not enough time to alert or make arrangements for U.S. media to participate. Under different circumstances, US media would have been alerted,” said Mr Hammond.

Mr Trump had just given a much-touted speech on Islam and the fight against terrorism to several middle eastern nations’ leaders.

Naturally, the travelling US press was unhappy with being left out of the opportunity to question the usually tacit Mr Tillerson, but transcripts of the conversation were provided.

White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Tillerson decided to join his Saudi counterpart “on the spot” and so there was no purposeful exclusion of US media.

Per the transcript Mr Tillerson said that he thinks “the President clearly was extending a hand and understanding that only together can we address this threat of terrorism that has befallen all of us, not just in this region but worldwide.“

He went on to say that “defeating these evil forces is the first step in advancing human rights worldwide, and he clearly has that in his mind as well.“

However, Mr Tillerson has also said in a speech to State Department employees that safeguarding American values of human rights are an “obstacle” in diplomacy rather than a tenet and a universal value.

Mr Trump himself has been flexible in his positions on issues, especially after meeting world leaders face-to-face, and it appears Mr Tillerson is following suit - as the situation demands it.

The State Department has not been holding regular press conferences as previous administrations have done.

On his first trip to Asia, Mr Tillerson did allow the usual press corps to accompany him and chose instead to take one journalist from the conservative outlet Independent Journal Review.

Normally this reporter would have acted as a ‘pool reporter,’ distributing to the larger press corps any information they gathered. However, the IJR reporter did not serve as a resource for colleagues.

He has previously described himself as "not a big media press access person."

The White House, perhaps seeing the reaction of reporters on Twitter about being denied access in Saudi Arabia, responded and Mr Tillerson held an informal press gaggle on Air Force One on 22 May.

During the short exchange, Mr Tillerson said that he does not feel Mr Trump should have to apologise to Israel for sharing the ally's classified intelligence with Russian officials during a White House meeting earlier this month.

Mr Tillerson is in Israel today with Mr Trump and will continue travelling with the president to the Vatican, Brussels for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit, and Italy for the group of seven meeting.