Trump starts to wheel and deal
Summary: Donald Trump has wasted little time in moving forward on
his promise to be the president who brings peace while MbS presides
over a Riyadh summit that may prove useful to Trump’s deal-making
efforts in the Middle East.
With Arab and world Muslim nations meeting in Riyadh
yesterday the question remains will Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the two
dominant power brokers, finally take significant action in an effort to
halt the genocide in Gaza and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon? Or will
they once again preside over a virtue signalling exercise that enables
Israel to continue its wars of aggression?
If Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed opt for the latter they
risk endangering the security of the states they rule over. Netanyahu
emboldened by Donald Trump’s sweeping victory seems to be laying the
ground for a direct war with Iran which would put Saudi Arabia and the
UAE as well as the other GCC states in a perilous position. In a video statement
the Israeli PM boasted that he had spoken with Trump three times since
last Tuesday’s election. It was Netanyahu at his cocky best keen to pile
humiliation on Joe Biden and a shattered Democratic Party by hyping his
“good and very important” conversations with the president-elect which
he described as:
further (tightening) the strong alliance between Israel and the
US. We see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its components and
the danger posed by it. We also see the great opportunities before
Israel, in the expansion of peace, and in other realms.
Netanyahu defines expanding peace through a continuing and expanded
war effort backed by a man whom in the past he has called “Israel’s
greatest friend.” Where Joe Biden had compelled Israel to limit its response
to Iran’s latest missile barrage, Netanyahu is eager to convey the idea
that he has been given the green light to do whatever is necessary so
that the IDF’s war aims are achieved by the time Trump assumes office on
20 January.
That alone should have been enough to give the Riyadh gathering a greater sense of urgency. Mohammed bin Salman opened the summit
with an unequivocal denunciation of Israel. The crown prince said Saudi
Arabia was standing with the people of Palestine and Lebanon: “the
kingdom renews its condemnation and categorical rejection to the
collective genocide that Israel is committing against the Palestinians.”
He decried the IDF’s “continued aggression” which he said was
undermining efforts to give Palestinians their legitimate rights and
enable peace in the region. He condemned “the Israeli military
operations that targeted Lebanese territories, and we reject threatening
Lebanon’s security and stability.”
His tough language was intended as much for a domestic audience as it
was for anyone else. That’s because the prince is at pains to lay to
rest allegations published in The Atlantic
in September that the “Palestinian issue” is not one he cares about. In
a meeting in January with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken the
magazine quoted the prince as saying:
Seventy percent of my population is younger than me. For most of
them, they never really knew much about the Palestinian issue. And so
they’re being introduced to it for the first time through this conflict.
It’s a huge problem. Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I
don’t, but my people do, so I need to make sure this is meaningful.
And while both MbS and Mohammed bin Zayed are happy to see Trump back
they remain anxious about the lengths he may be prepared to go to
enable Netanyahu’s vision of a greater Israel that uses as a modus operandi ethnic cleansing and genocide to enable its realisation.
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