President Donald Trump has a special affection for West Asia, not only for its hydrocarbon riches, strategic location, security of Israel, and competition with China and Russia but also for the style statements coming through the inflow of petroleum dollars. He loves the welcome laced with glitz and glitterati, and there is not going to be any dearth of it. This happens to be his first visit to the region in his second term, which is being seen as highly significant with signalling for many others.
It will be recalled that even in his first term he had paid a visit to Saudi Arabia, which ironically led to the blockade of Qatar, causing regional fissures. But that is passé. Moreover, possibly his major foreign policy success was in West Asia, where he engineered the Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, which have survived despite the disastrous and dividing Israel-Hamas war entailing atrocities on civilians on both sides.
Trump’s efforts to hold a ceasefire have been undermined by the intransigence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump’s displeasure with him is quite evident since many of his colleagues have commented often openly about their disappointment with the Israeli line of action, which has distanced Saudi Arabia and others from normalising ties while there are allegations of Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) pounding the poor Gazans under the garb of fighting Hamas. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has emerged once again as the biggest supporter of the Palestine cause and the two-state solution. These have become Saudi Arabia’s precondition to normalise diplomatic relations with the Jewish state and were clearly communicated to Trump.
