The Missing Issue in Trump's Iran Strategy: Palestinian Rights

posted on: Feb 11, 2026

By: Ghassan Rubeiz / Arab America Contributing Writer

What Netanyahu and Trump fail to grasp is that war may start as a desired solution but often ends as a nightmare – as Gaza’s two-year conflict has clearly demonstrated.

Moving from one nightmare to another, possibly on its way: Iran.

On February 5, the Trump administration and Iran held indirect talks in Muscat, Oman, thereby temporarily averting military confrontation. Both sides called the meeting positive, yet the next day, Washington expanded sanctions on Iran and threatened additional tariffs on countries purchasing Iranian oil. This disconnect reveals a fundamental flaw: the United States refuses to acknowledge that resolving the Iranian impasse requires addressing a relevant and important factor, the Palestinian issue.

Washington has placed Israel’s short-term interests at the core of negotiations with Tehran, while Tel Aviv fiercely opposed any form of US-Iran rapprochement. Prime Minister Netanyahu, currently making his sixth visit to the White House, is eager to argue that now is a “historic moment” to bring Iran to its knees militarily and to dismantle the power of its regional proxies. Beholden to Israel’s supporters in Washington, Trump yields to Netanyahu’s fantasy: he demands, without deep personal conviction, that any nuclear agreement must also restrain Iranian missiles and end Iran’s support for its proxies in the region: Hezbollah, Hamas, the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, and the Houthis.

Political amnesia creates an unresolvable conflict. The marginalized Palestinian question makes Israel perpetually insecure while giving Iran continued justification to support resistance movements. Moreover, Israel’s territorial expansion and America’s dominating military presence in the Gulf incentivize an isolated Iran to build defensive missile systems and pursue nuclear capabilities. From much of the Arab and Muslim world’s perspective, as long as Palestinians remain dispossessed, Iran’s “resistance axis” maintains legitimacy.

Is there a way out? If Washington were to include recognition of Palestinian rights in the dialogue with Tehran, possibilities for mutual concessions might open naturally. A phased agreement, as suggested below, for the negotiations could prevent imminent war. While predicting exact scenarios is impossible, a hypothetical sequence of a negotiated deal does illustrate a realistic resolution of the conflict.

Here is how it goes. Phase one: Iran freezes fissile material enrichment below weapons-grade levels and restores intrusive monitoring; the United States reopens its East Jerusalem consulate, restores Palestinian institutional funding, and publicly affirms Palestinian statehood rights. Iran instructs regional allies to cool provocative rhetoric and halt cross-border attacks; the US offers Iran limited sanctions relief.

Phase two: Washington recognizes Palestinian statehood in principle and conditions military aid to Israel on halting settlement expansion. Iran accepts longer-term nuclear limits, caps missile ranges, and orchestrates de-escalation by supporting a stable Lebanese border, long-term Gaza ceasefire, and Yemen political settlement. This wouldn’t dismantle Iranian influence but would shift it from armed confrontation to political engagement.

Over time, this evolves into a regional security framework involving Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Arab Gulf. Proxies transition from militias to political actors.

The final stage consolidates a rights-based regional order anchored by viable Palestinian political horizons and normalized Iran-Arab relations. And the Abraham Accords could then expand after a place for Palestinian rights is assured.

Without bringing the Israeli-Arab conflict to the negotiating table, talks with Iran will remain trapped in an endless cycle of sanctions, threats, and missed opportunities. Military solutions generate unintended consequences- a lesson the region can no longer afford to ignore.

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 has delivered occasional public talks on peace, justice, and interfaith topics. 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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