
Why Jordan and Egypt Are Critical to Trump’s Gaza Proposal
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT – On Tuesday, with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at his side, President Donald Trump exuded confidence that the Arab world will […] More
Bottom Line Up Front
It is not simply with respect to Iran where U.S. policy lacks clear strategy. U.S. intentions in Syria are also ambiguous, and hundreds of bipartisan lawmakers recently called on the President to lay out a coherent Syria strategy. High-ranking members of the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees, including Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) and Member Michael McCaul (R., TX), laid out a litany of concerns ranging from the use of ungoverned spaces by terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda, to Russian and Iranian gains as Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad consolidates his hold on power. Lawmakers implored the President to coordinate the administration’s Syria policy with allies and implement a full range of sanctions and other forms of leverage in pursuit of U.S. national security objectives.
The only consistency in the Trump administration’s Middle East policy has been to support autocratic regimes, as it has in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.And through its support to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in those countries’ disastrous war in Yemen, the Trump administration has shown it is often more interested in selling weapons than in upholding American values. President Trump has often reiterated his support for Egyptian strongman Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who the President allegedly referred to as a ‘killer.’ Last week, President Trump circumvented Congress by declaring an emergency over tensions with Iran and using that declaration to move forward with arms sales to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. These sales had been blocked by Congress since 2018.
The Trump administration is seeking to convene a summit in Bahrain to discuss economic incentives and investment in the West Bank and Gaza as a prelude to what has been described as a ‘secret road map for peace.’ The administration’s blueprint for peace in the Middle East will be spearheaded by senior adviser to President Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Bahrain summit will not include a discussion of the most critical elements of any future peace agreement—the political component—and many analysts have observed that the Trump administration will struggle to be considered an honest broker in a negotiated settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. This is especially true after Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by relocating the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas described as ‘a slap in the face,’ dampening prospects of any potential deal.
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