U.S. Secretary of the State Mike Pompeo visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and the Armenian chapel inside the Church on Thursday, March 21.

In the Armenian Chapel Pompeo lit a candle after which the Armenian Superior of the Holy Sepulcher Church Reverend Samvel Aghoyan welcomed him on behalf of Jerusalem Patriarch Archbishop Nourhan Manougian and the St. James Brotherhood, according to a Facebook post by the Patriarchate’s Archimandrite Koryun Baghdasarian.

“We wish success in all your efforts to establish peace in the region, so that all the nations and followers of different religions can live in a peaceful and prosperous region,” Rev. Aghoyan told Pompeo.

US President Donald Trump visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on in May 2017. During their visit to the Armenian section of the Holy Sepulchre Church, Trump and the First Lady of the United States enjoyed the songs of the choir of the Armenian Seminary.