Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
President Donald Trump went big yet again Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, rattling off several promising developments and lofty plans for a peaceful, prosperous Middle East.
Wish him luck fulfilling that dream.
One huge win is solidifying ties with Saudi Arabia itself, a vital ally in the region, after President Joe Biden nearly severed them.
De facto Saudi ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman heartily welcomed Trump, and the two then inked a dozen-plus deals to boost cooperation; the Saudis have also agreed to invest $600 billion in America (though Trump chided them to up it to $1 trillion).
The prez then laid out a roadmap to a “bright future” for the Middle East — one of “peace and prosperity” and “commerce, not chaos.”
“After so many decades of conflict, finally, it is within our grasp to reach the future that generations before us could only dream about,” he cheered.
And Trump proved it at least theoretically possible in his first term with the Abraham Accords, unexpected peace agreements between Israel and several Arab nations.
The prez on Tuesday called on the Saudis to join those accords: “You’ll be honoring me,” he said, even as he admitted, “you’ll do it in your own time.”
A Riyadh-Jerusalem peace deal could go a long way toward ending the long Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well: If the Arab world is moving on, the dream of destroying Israel is hopeless.
Trump rightly pinned the blame for much of the region’s turmoil on Iran but said he’s “willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships” with it “for a better and more stable world.”
If Tehran rejects that olive branch, Washington “will have no choice but to inflict massive maximum pressure” on Tehran and “drive Iranian oil exports to zero.”
Either way, Trump vowed, “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.” Hear, hear — even if making good on that vow requires military action, as all concerned know it might.
The prez also means to normalize relations with Syria’s new regime; he’s dropping sanctions on the country “to give them a chance at greatness” and will meet Wednesday with Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa even though he’s a former al Qaeda leader.
It all adds up to a glorious and grandiose vision — a “Golden Age of the Middle East,” Trump called it.
Such optimism is something the region desperately needs to not only hear, but embrace.
Of course, vision and reality are two different things, especially in the Middle East; here’s hoping the prez and the region’s key players can turn Trump’s vision into a new reality.