How Donald Trump is making things worse in the Middle East. The view from Europe.
By Carl Bildt November 15 at 1:05 PM
Carl Bildt is a former prime minister of Sweden and a contributing columnist for The Post.
The Trump administration has now revealed its Middle East strategy for all to see. The Europeans aren’t happy.
So far, at least, the United States has decided to focus on fighting extremism and checking Iran. The best way to achieve these aims, the White House has decided, is by deepening its previous reliance on its regional allies, Saudi Arabia and Israel, to the exclusion of just about everything else.
It should come as little surprise that both Riyadh and Tel Aviv are thrilled by the shift. Both countries are busily using their influence with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to push their advantages as far as possible.
Consider the ill-advised Saudi intervention in Yemen. It started under the Obama administration, which occasionally tried to warn the Saudis that they were going too far. Under President Trump, however, even these cautious criticisms have ceased entirely. Instead, Washington seems to be stepping up its efforts to support the ill-fated war. The result has been a military quagmire and a humanitarian disaster of extraordinary proportions.
Then there’s Qatar. There can be little doubt that Riyadh’s campaign to engineer a change of regime in Doha was inspired by the perception of strong support from Trump and his clan. The feud between the ruling families in Saudi and Qatar certainly wasn’t new, and neither were the attempts to meddle in each other’s internal affairs. This time, however, Trump’s demonstrative backing of the Saudis gave them reason to expect a quick victory – wrongly, as it turns out. Instead Riyadh is facing a diplomatic tug-of-war with no end in sight.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/11/15/how-donald-trump-is-making-things-worse-in-the-middle-east
