Putting pressure on Iran to stop meddling in various hot-spots in the Middle East, 70-year-old Donald Trump joined with Saudi Arabia to urge Iran to change its current foreign policy. Telling Iran to stop funding “terrorists and militias,” Trump ignores the Saudi’s backing of various terrorist groups to topple the Syrian government of president Bashar al-Assad. Former President Barack Obama wholeheartedly backed the seven-year-old Saudi proxy war seeking regime change in Damascus. Iran joined Russian forces in backing al-Assad, something Trump doesn’t mention when condemning Iran as the Mideast’s chief sponsor of state terrorism. Critical of Obama’s July 15, 2015 nuke deal with Iran, Trump puts Iran on notice that the U.S. and its allies won’t let Iran develop a nuclear weapon. “What’s happened with Iran has brought many parts of the Middle East toward Israel,” said Trump.
Saudi Arabia opposes Iran’s military support for the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen that have seized one-half of the country around Aden. Saudi Arabis sees Iran’s role in Syria, Yemen and Iraq as destabilizing, when, Russia sees Iran or its Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia as keeping al-Assad’s sovereignty. When you look at Syria today, the country’s been carved up and occupied by various foreign-backed militias, with al-Assad only controlling parts around Damascus. Neither Russia nor Iran have admitted that al-Assad’s Syria no longer exists, except for parts around Damascus. Trump would like Russia and Iran to join the Geneva based peace talks led by U.N. Special envoy Staffan de Mistura to work on a political transition that doesn’t include al-Assad. As it stands today, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah work at cross-purposes to the international community to save al-Assad.
Speaking in Jerusalem, Trump talked about ending terrorism and promoting business activity around the Middle East. “That includes advancing prosperity, defeating the evils of terrorism and facing the threat of an Iranian regime that is threatening the region and causing so much violence and suffering,” Trump said. Trump has been highly critical of Obama’s Iranian Nuke Deal offering Iran billions in sanctions relief in exchange for suspending or curtailing its uranium enrichment plan. Speaking today in Tehran, newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pledged to not stop testing ballistic missiles, rejecting Trump’s calls for more Iranian compliance with its advanced weapons systems. With Saudi Arabia cooperating more with Israel, Iran panders to radical groups calling for death to America and Israel, something pushing Iran more into Russia’s orbit.
Eight years of Obama left U.S.-Israeli relations at the lowest point since before Sept. 11. Obama never really understood U.S.-Israeli relations in a post Sept. 11 world, where the U.S. could no longer hammer Israel to make concessions to Palestinians compromising its national security. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump for resetting U.S.-Israeli relations. “I want you to know how much we appreciate the change in American policy on Iran which you enunciated clearly,” Netanyahu told Trump at a Jerusalem press conference. Trump told Iran in January to stop “its deadly funding, training and equipping of terrorists and militias,” sending a warning to Hezbollah who’s been a main supplier to rockets to the Gaza Strip. Iran routinely backs Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians, by supplying arms-and-cash to radical Palestinian terror groups.
Iran sees it regional role of confronting Saudi-Turkey-U.S.-backed rebel groups that seek to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Allied with Russia and Hezbollah, Iran finds itself at odds with the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia, allying itself with Russia to prop up al-Assad’s Syria. Rouhani said Trump’s summit with Saudi Arabia “had no political value and will bear no results,” referring to Saudi Arabia’s fierce opposition to al-Assad’s regime. Rouhani didn’t hesitate to blame Saudi Arabia for the seven-year-old destabilizing proxy war in Syria. “Who can say the region will experience total stability without Iran? Who fought against the terrorists? It was Iran, Hezbollah and Syria. But who funded the terrorists?” asked Rouhani, pointing fingers directly at Saudi Arabia.. While there’s truth to Rouhani’s statements, he and Russian President Vladimir Putin haven’t accepted that al-Assad’s Syria is lost.
Trump’s Mideast swing shows what a difference a day makes, now that Obama’s no longer running U.S. foreign policy. Obama didn’t get along with Netanyahu because he didn’t fully get the role Iran plans in regional instability. More interested in inking the July 15, 2015 P5+1 [U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany] Iran Nuke Deal, Obama couldn’t see any other way of stopping Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Whatever the merits or downside to the agreement, Obama couldn’t get along with Netanyahu over his two terms. Joining closer with Netanyahu, Trump makes a two-state solution with Palestinians more possible because they must get more practical to pull it off. When Trump said he could live with a one-state solution Feb. 15, he signaled to Hamas and the PLO to resolve their differences or face the prospects of having no independent state under his watch.
