Touring the Middle East this week, President Donald Trump has sought to galvanize traditional US allies against a common foe Iran, an opening bid to realign the region while advancing the prospect of peace that’s long eluded American leaders.
It’s a strategy that also comes with a new promise to US allies: the longstanding emphasis on democratic values, which US presidents have long pressed in talks with autocratic regimes, will no longer stand in the way of deepening ties.
It’s a pronounced break with his predecessor, Barack Obama, who worked while in office to engage Tehran hoping to bring about the same goal of peace. The move was consistent with other attempts around the globe to engage countries with long-frozen ties to the US, a practice that seems to have ended when Trump took office.
For a President whose first months in office have been marked by a frenzied pace but little policy direction, Trump’s move to realign traditional US allies in a united front against Iran amounts to one of the first firm outlines of a doctrine that, until now, has been rooted primarily in flexibility.
It’s also one that comes with risks, including further isolating a country whose destabilization campaign extends into the regions worst crises.
“I can see a much deeper path to friendship with Israel” and Arab nations, Trump said after arriving here Monday. “A lot of it’s spurred on by what’s happening with Iran.”
The reemphasis on traditional US alliances here has drawn broad welcome from Arab and Israeli leaders, who offered outsized praise for Trump despite few details for his plans moving forward.
On Monday, there was one tangible sign that a US bid to align Arab nations and Israel was progressing: Trump flew in Air Force One directly from Riyadh to Tel Aviv Sunday, an historic flight between two countries long at odds.
‘A terrible, terrible thing’
Speaking in Jerusalem, Trump offered the most overt criticism of his predecessor yet on his foreign swing, declaring the agreement Obama helped broker to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions a profound failure that had animated the country to support terror.
“Instead of saying thank you to the United States, they now feel emboldened,” Trump said as he prepared to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose strident opposition to the Iran deal caused nearly irreparable rifts with Obama.
“It was a terrible, terrible thing for the United States to enter that deal,” Trump said as Netanyahu nodded in agreement. “And believe me, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. That I can tell you.”
While Trump campaigned as an ardent opponent of the Iran accord, his administration has not taken steps to formally scrap the agreement as promised. A review of the plan is underway, and Trump’s State Department has said that elements of the pact are working.
But as Trump has moved across the Middle East, his message on the deal hasn’t wavered. He declared to Muslim political leaders in Riyadh that any attempt to engage Iran’s government was misguided and could produce further instability.
“Until the Iranian regime is willing to be a partner for peace, all nations of conscience must work together to isolate it, deny it, funding for terrorism, cannot do it, and pray for the day when the Iranian people have the just and righteous government they so richly deserve,” Trump said during the speech, which gathered the leaders of more than 50 Muslim nations in the Gulf for a summit on countering extremism.
‘Working together’
White House officials said after Trump’s slate of meetings in Saudi Arabia Sunday that they were surprised at the level of professed desire among Arab Gulf states to partner with Israel in countering Iran’s aggressions.
“They’re working together extremely cooperatively, and also working incredible well with Israel. I kept hearing that over and over again in all of the bilateral meetings,” one official said, speaking anonymously to describe private talks.
The sessions in Riyadh came days after Iran reelected its leader, Hassan Rouhani, a victory for a moderate who some western leaders hope can bring needed reforms to the country.
Part of Obama’s objective in brokering the nuclear deal was to bring the country to a global negotiating table, thereby establishing channels for diplomacy. Loosening sanctions in exchange for a curtailment of the nuclear program allowed a flow of western capital and goods into Iran, which Obama and his partners hoped could better integrate Iran’s 80 million citizens with the rest of the world.
This week, Trump has signaled that the mode of foreign engagement focusing on fostering Democratic ideals is ending.
“We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship,” Trump said in Saudi Arabia. “Instead, we are here to offer partnership based on shared interests and values to pursue a better future.”
Symbolic power
Obama used the symbolic power of presidential travel during his eight years in office to highlight and prod for democratic progress abroad. Navigating Air Force One to capitals in Myanmar, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos, Obama hoped to improve US security by luring autocratic governments to change their ways.
Countries where relations with the US had frozen, like Iran and Cuba, were brought to the negotiating table with the hope engagement could spur the beginnings of democratic reform. Allies in Europe, skeptical of US power after George W. Bush’ intervention in Iraq, were given a full embrace.
“There’s a danger of over-calibrating and overcorrecting on this,” said Antony Blinken, a deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration. “We have to walk a very fine line between on the one hand making sure we are pushing back against Iran’s objectionable activities, but not closing the door on a relationship as this country evolves, because that will only reinforce all of the hard liners in the country who want to keep Iran stuck in the past.”
“That’s the line the President has to walk, and it’s difficult to do that if you’re actually putting all of your focus on bringing people together in this crusade against Iran,” Blinken said.