President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East May 20-23 has revamped US policy in the region and established two main positions: first, that Washington stands behind a coalition of Sunni Arab states allied against an expansionist and subversive Iran and radical Islamist organizations; and second, that the United States will act vigorously to bring about Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on an agreed solution to the historic conflict between the two peoples.
The day Trump was elected, but before the results were known, I wrote in Al-Monitor about a missile attack by Houthi rebels, Iranian proxies, from the Red Sea coast. I ended it on the following note: “Even if the next US administration preserves the nuclear agreement, the United States cannot remain indifferent to the new threat posed by Iran to the freedom of navigation between Asia and the West. Let’s hope that the role the United States assumes in this struggle will be consistent and leading, rather than transitory and marginal.”
