Despite President Trump’s strong words spoken in Riyadh last week, Ambassador Gary Grappo says the Trump administration and the leaders assembled in Riyadh “have no interest in provoking open confrontation” with Iran.
President Donald Trump’s visits to Saudi Arabia and Israel, part of his first foreign trip since taking office, in many ways were about unity with old allies. Billboards displaying a picture of Mr. Trump and King Salman with the inscription “Together we prevail” greeted the president in Riyadh, where both leaders signed an arms deal worth $110 billion.
US-Saudi cooperation harks back decades, but relations were strained under Mr. Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, mainly owing to the latter’s rapprochement with Iran, which culminated in the 2015 nuclear deal. Riyadh and its Gulf Arab allies view Tehran as a hostile force in the Middle East bent on dominating the region; Iran sees Sunni Gulf states in a similar fashion.
Both Mr. Trump and the Saudi monarch chastised Iran, with the president stating that Tehran had for decades “fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror”. King Salman called Iran the “spearhead of global terrorism”. Speaking days later in Israel, the US president stressed that Washington was committed “to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and halting their support of terrorists and militias”.
Despite Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and the massive arms deal, Gary Grappo, a former US ambassador posted both in Saudi Arabia and Israel in the past, says the Trump administration and the leaders assembled in Riyadh “have no interest in provoking open confrontation” with Iran, citing economic reasons and the explosive state the region is in. He predicts “continued low-to-medium grade confrontation” in conflict theatres such as Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
Mr. Trump has always fashioned himself as a deal maker and has expressed his determination to broker a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, the “ultimate deal”. “I have found new reasons for hope,” the president said after his arrival in Tel Aviv, whilst remaining short on details.
The last round of talks broke down three years ago without substantial progress on the key issues. Observers were skeptical what measures could renew the process in the immediate future, with prominent Israeli journalist Gideon Levy telling TWW he didn’t think Mr. Trump could revive the talks.
One thing seems clear from this trip, Mr. Trump is keen to show that the Obama era is over.