The huge smiles exchanged by Donald Trump and the Israeli prime Riviera de Oriente Near They seem to be far away. The president of the United States concludes this Friday a tour of that region, which has not included Israel, and in which he has reinforced his relations with the Gulf monarchies with a coup of millionaire contracts. During his trip, the Republican has printed a turn to his policy in the area by returning Syria to the international community and confirming that the nuclear agreement with Iran is on the right track. All for Israel’s disgust. The country that presumes to be the best ally of Washington in the region has had to settle for observing that approach, while in recent weeks it has accumulated friction with the United States, especially for Iran, but also on account of Gaza.
In recent weeks, Trump has hit effect in the Middle East for those who have not had his great geopolitical partner, relegated to the background. The most recent has been his meeting on Wednesday with the new Syrian leader, Ahmed al Shara, in Riad, during his tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, the first of this mandate, which followed the announcement made on the eve of the uprising of the sanctions against that country. Washington had maintained those measures despite the overthrow of the Bachar the Asad regime in December.
Trump has done for this ignored that Israel had asked him to maintain the sanctions. The Netanyahu government defines the now Syrian interim president as a jihadist- his organization, Hayat Tahrir al Sham, was linked to Al Qaeda until 2016- camouflaged in suit and tie.
Before, other initiatives had arrived from which Israel learned at the same time as the press. The first, the beginning of nuclear negotiations between Washington and its regional nemesis, Iran -Trump said Thursday that both are very close to sustaining a pact. The second, the agreement closed with the Hutis rebels in Yemen so that these militiamen stop attacking the merchant ships that cross the Red Sea, in exchange for the US to stop bombing them.
That agreement of the beginning of May does not force the hutis to stop launching missiles to Israel in retaliation for their offensive in Gaza. “The message to the region was clear: Israel is no longer one of the main American priorities,” said Itamar Eichner, a diplomatic correspondent for the Israeli portal Ynet
While the US president boasted that pact in Riyadh, in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv sounded on Tuesday the sirens to alert that an Hutí missile approached.
Israel was also out of play in the secret negotiations of Trump’s administration with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamás, which resulted in the last Monday of the soldier Edan Alexander. This military was the last living hostage with American nationality of the 59 – almost all Israeli – that the Palestinian Islamist group retains the total of 251 that he took during the attacks of October 7, 2023 in Israel. The Israeli response to these attacks was to trigger the offensive in Gaza.
Netanyahu tried to arrive at the merit of that release, attributing it in part to military pressure in the strip. For the newspaper of the newspaper Haaretz Yossi pouring that Washington negotiation with Hamas inflicted the Israeli prime minister a “painful humiliation.”
A “brutal” war
When Trump announced during his February meeting with Netanyahu in the White House, his project to turn Gaza into a luxury beach complex -La Riviera de Oriente Near– The Israeli prime minister was excited about a project that immediately made it. That plan is still there, but the Israeli prime minister and the president of the United States disagree in a fundamental aspect: Trump wants to end as soon as possible with the war that on Wednesday defined as “brutal”, while Netanyahu has said that he will only put an end when he gets a “total victory” over Hamas.
Washington is showing these days of some irritation before the intransigence of the Israeli prime minister. The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said Thursday having had a conversation with Netanyahu, in which he expressed his government’s concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The newspaper Haaretz had revealed the day before How Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has called Netyahu this week to urge him to be more flexible in the negotiations that Israel maintains in Doha, the Catarí capital, with Hamas. This dialogue still does not bear fruit because Netanyahu refuses to end the Israeli offensive, even if the Palestinian Islamist group returns to all hostages. On the contrary, last day 5 he announced his intention to conquer and occupy that Palestinian territory.
In their last stage of their trip this Thursday, the United Arab Emirates announced an investment of 1.4 billion dollars (1.25 billion euros) in 10 years in the US. Before Saudi and Qatar Arabia and Qatar had also entertained Trump and signed multi -million dollar agreements for the purchase of weapons, airplanes and technology with the United States. At the same time, Israel intensified its bombings in Gaza and killed about 200 Palestinians in 48 hours. He moved away, if further, that peace that the Republican says he wants to want. Even to do business and build skyscrapers and golf courses in the strip, after expelling its population.
Rouzbeh Parsi, of the Program for the Middle East and North Africa of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, believes that “Trump is probably listening to the Gulf countries that tell him to continue negotiating with Iran and stop the Israelis in the strip. In both issues, Netanyahu is on the opposite side”.
The US president also aspires to boost the growing role of diplomatic mediators from countries such as Qatar – the mediator with Hamas – or Saudi Arabia, host in several rounds of conversations about Ukraine. He is interested as investors, as clients of defense products – in Riad, the United States has signed agreements for 600,000 million dollars – and American technology, and as energy exporters. No less as key pieces in your attempt to control international gas and oil prices.
For Mexican researcher Fernando Carvajal, specialist in Yemen and in foreign policy in the United States in the Middle East -was a member of the UN group of experts about Yemen Between 2017 and 2019 -, in the Middle East, the Republican president mostly seeks to “guarantee the interests of the United States”, even if for this he has to irritate Israel, he explains from Los Angeles.
“Trump has not sold Israel” in matters such as the non -aggression pact with the hutis, says this expert, “but is not helping Netanyahu.” The president’s style is to apply one of his slogans, he recalls: the “America First” (United States, first).
The US president insists that relations with Israel are still excellent, but officials from both countries, mentioned without citing their name in an analysis of HaaretzThey say that the relationship between Netanyahu and Trump “has touched background.”
“It seems that Trump’s patience with Netanyahu’s maneuvers is decreasing,” says Rouzbeh Parsi. For this expert the “most difficult” issue is “what will mean this medium -term distancing and if it will become a policy and not a temporary dispute.” Therefore, it recommends caution when talking about a cooling of relationships.
Israel is still an ally that Washington considers essential despite the secondary role to which it has been relegated these days. The old real estate promoter who is Trump have not forgotten his dreams of making Gaza The Riviera de Oriente Near. From Abu Dhabi, this Thursday he proclaimed that he still wants the United States to “possess” the strip. He wants to turn it, he says, a “freedom zone.”
For more updates, visit our homepage: NewsTimesWire
