Washington, DC – Three days, three countries, hundreds of billions of dollars in investments and a geopolitical change in the United States approach to the region: Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East was hectic.
This week, the President of the United States visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on the first planned trip of his second presidency, after having attended the funeral of Pope Francis last month.
Trump was visibly joyful throughout the trip when he obtained investments, criticized the national political rivals and praise for Gulf leaders. The word “historical” has been used more than sometimes by US officials to describe visits.
With Trump who returns to the White House, here are five key dishes from his trip:
A reprimand of interventionism
Addressing an investment summit in Riyadh, Trump has promoted a realistic approach to the Middle East-the one in which the United States does not intervene in the affairs of other countries.
He took a blow on the neoconservatives who supervised the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while he greeted the Gulf leaders for developing the region.
“This great transformation did not come from a Western intervention or from theft of people in beautiful planes, giving you conferences on how to live and how to govern your own affairs,” he said.
“The brilliant marbles of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation, neo-cons or non-profit manufacturers like those who spent billions of billions of dollars and billions of dollars to develop Kabul, Baghdad, so many cities.”
Trump has built his political mark with his slogan “America First”, calling on the United States to focus on his own problems instead of helping – or bombing – foreign countries.
But his words at the investment summit marked a severe reprimand of the neo-consults who dominated Trump’s republican party a decade ago.
“In the end, the so-called nation builders destroyed many more nations than they have built, and the interventionists intervene in complex companies that they did not even understand each other,” said Trump.
Israel sidelined, but no Gaza solution
It is rare that the American presidents go to the Middle East and do not visit Israel, but Trump omitted the American ally of his itinerary when he visited the region.
Israel’s jump was considered to reflect the deterioration of links between the American administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This week’s trip also came in the context of several measures perceived as proof of the marginalization of the United States. Israel. The United States continued to speak with the Iranian rival of Israel, announced a cease-fire with the Houthis in Yemen and led unilateral negotiations to release the Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, an American citizen, the captivity of Hamas.
In addition, during the Gulf tour, Trump did not use his remarks to prioritize the creation of official diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which had been a higher objective during his first mandate.
We still do not know how Trump’s decisions will affect the “special relationship” between the two allies, but experts say that it becomes more and more obvious that the United States no longer considers the Middle East only through the objective of Israel.
“Is this a tactical problem for Netanyahu and the entire pro-Israeli lobby? I think this is the case,” said Khaled Elgindy, an academic invited to the University of Georgetown, about Trump.
“This throws a key into the machine because it is a president who openly shows daylight with Israeli decision -making, and not only in rhetoric, but acting on it – leaving Israel out of the process.”
With this emerging chasm, some defenders of Palestinian rights had hoped that the trip of the American president in the region would see Washington to continue an agreement to end the War of Israel against Gaza.
But while Trump burst from luxurious Gulf buildings, Israel has intensified his bombing to destroy what remains of the Palestinian territory.
No ceases have been announced, despite information reporting on talks in Doha. And Israel seems to be moving forward with his plan to extend his assault against Gaza while he continues to block the aid for the nearly two million people in the enclave, which has raised fears of famine.
The United Nations experts and rights defending groups described the situation as a genocide.
But despite the preaching of “peace and prosperity” for the Israelis and the Palestinians, Trump made no effort to end the war during this week’s trip.
Trump suggested on Thursday that he had not abandoned the idea of portraying Gaza and put him back to the United States – a proposal which, according to legal experts, is equivalent to ethnic cleaning.
“I have concepts for Gaza which, I think, are very good. Make it an area of freedom,” he said. “Let the United States get involved and make it an area of freedom.”
Seize sanctions in Syria
In a decision that surprised many observers, Trump announced from Riyadh that he will offer a relief of sanctions to Syria, while the country emerges for a decade more civil war.
Trump also met the Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and described him as a “young and attractive”.
A lifting of wholesale sanctions was not planned, partly because of the hostility of Israel to the new authorities in Syria. Israeli officials often describe Al-Sharaa, who directed the Al Qaeda branch in Syria before breaking the links with the group, as a “terrorist”.
But Trump said he had made the decision to remove economic sanctions against Syria at the request of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Bin Salman and the president of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“I will order the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance of greatness,” said the American president.
The White House said on Wednesday that Trump had a list of Al-Sharaa requests, in particular by establishing diplomatic relations with Israel and deporting “Palestinian terrorists”.
The abolition of American sanctions, which had been imposed on the government of former President Bashar al-Assad, is probably a boost for the new Syrian authorities, which are struggling with an economy in difficulty after years of conflict.
“The lifting of sanctions against Syria represents a fundamental turning point,” Ibrahim Nafi Qushji, an economist, in Al Jazeera Ibrahim Nafrahim Nafrahim.
“The Syrian economy will go from interaction with development economies to integration into more developed economies, which potentially rehaulted trade and investment relations considerably.”
A carrot and a stick for Iran
In Saudi Arabia, Trump said he wanted an agreement with Iran – and he wants it to do quickly.
“We really want them to be a prosperous country,” said the American president about Iran.
“We want them to be a wonderful, safe and large country, but they cannot have a nuclear weapon. It is an offer that will not last forever. The time has come for them to choose. “
Trump warned Iran that if he rejected his “olive branch”, he would impose “massive maximum pressure” against Tehran and choke his oil exports.
In particular, Trump did not threaten an explicit military action against Iran, a departure from his previous rhetoric. At the end of March, for example, he told NBC News: “If they do not conclude a contract, there will be bombings.”
Iran says that he is not looking for nuclear weapons and that he will host a rigorous monitoring program for his nuclear installations.
But Israel and some Hawks want the Iranian nuclear program to be completely dismantled, not just reduced.
US and Iranian officials organized several series of discussions this year, but Tehran said that he has not received an official Washington offer. And Trump officials did not explicitly indicate what is the end of the talks.
American envoy Steve Witkoff said last month that Iran “had to stop and eliminate” the enrichment of uranium, but a few days earlier, he had suggested that an enrichment should be brought back to the levels of civil energy.
Several Gulf countries, including the three that Trump visited this week, have welcomed nuclear negotiations, because relations between Iran and its Arab neighbors have become more stable in recent years.
Investments, investments and more investments
Before entering politics, Trump was a real estate tycoon who played his celebrity character as a mega-mega-Marchand. He seems to have brought this commercial state of mind to the White House.
In the rich Gulf region, Trump was in his element. He announced transactions that would see Saudi Arabia, Qatar and water would buy American weapons and invest in American companies. According to the White House, Trump obtained a total of 2 billions of dollars in investments in the Middle East during the trip.
And his administration considers agreements as a major political and economic victory for Trump.
“Although President Biden President was needed to obtain $ 1 billion in investments, President Trump succeeded in his first month, the additional investment commitments that continue to ride,” said the White House.
“President Trump accelerates investments in America and obtains fair trade agreements worldwide, opening the way to a new golden age of sustainable prosperity for future generations.”
