Loading ...Making the Best out of Trump's Visit to the Arab Gulf States
By: Ghassan Rubeiz / Arab America Contributing Writer
President Trump recently arrived in Saudi Arabia on his first major international trip of his second term. After Riyadh, he will travel to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. By all indications, he will focus more on business than politics, but there will still be some opportunities for Trump’s hosts to discuss the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. They could encourage Trump to continue to separate U.S. policy from Israel’s; revisit the two-state solution; and broaden regional diplomacy beyond the Abraham Accords.
The visiting president should be commended for agreeing to a mutual ceasefire with the Houthis, despite Israel’s continued conflict with them; pursuing nuclear negotiations with Iran, despite Netanyahu’s desire to dismantle the Iranian regime; seeking an agreement with Hamas, despite the IDF’s plan for total victory over Hamas; and considering separate agreements with the Gulf states that may not involve or include Israel.
The Arab leaders should also remind Trump of his 2020 Israel-Palestine peace plan. Though the Arab world initially rejected it, the political landscape has changed enough for it to merit a fresh look. Both Trump’s plan and the 2002 Saudi-sponsored Peace Initiative (endorsed by all 22 Arab League countries and linked to normalization with Israel) call for a two-state solution. However, they differ on crucial details: Trump’s plan permits Israel to annex portions of the West Bank, while the Saudi initiative demands complete Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967.
Trump’s plan also calls for a demilitarized Palestinian state. At the same time, the Arab Peace Initiative affirms the rights of Palestinians to have their own military force to ensure full sovereignty. Given the self-defeating misadventures of Hamas and other Jihadi groups over the past decades, the growing dependence of the oil rich countries on the West, the economic failure in Egypt and other countries in the Levant and north Africa, and the failure of the international diplomacy to stop Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territories, Palestinians may now consider to demilitarize their resistance in exchange for citizenship in a two-state, shared-security framework.
The Arab leaders could also encourage Trump to continue nuclear talks with Tehran. The Arab Gulf’s attitudes toward Iran have radically shifted from antagonism to a cautious friendship in recent years. The region has recognized that isolating Iran only intensifies cross-border tensions. This inclusive approach to Iran is at odds with Israel’s militant perspective; indeed, lasting regional stability may ultimately require peace between Iran and Israel within a comprehensive agreement that includes all regional powers.
We should not expect too much from this trip: regardless of what Trump promises to do to help the Palestinians and the wider Arab world, mutual commitments between the US and the Gulf will not change easily, and Israel’s special relationship with the United States remains intact. Still, if Trump’s visit to the Arab world, at such a dark and critical moment in history, utterly ignores what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank, the responsibility for such negligence will be great. I would not rule out minor diplomatic surprises related to Gaza, Syria or Lebanon.
Ghassan Rubeiz is the former Middle East Secretary of the World Council of Churches. Earlier, he taught psychology and social work in his country of birth, Lebanon, and later in the United States, where he currently lives. He has contributed to political commentary for the past twenty years and delivered occasional public talks on peace, justice, and interfaith subjects. You can reach him at rubeizg@gmail.com
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.
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