Washington announced in late May that it will hold a regional economic conference in Manama, Bahrain, at the end of June. The Trump team invited most Gulf states and other Arab countries, as well as Israel and the Palestinians.
If it was just a beginner’s mistake, without the possibility of causing any harm — if it was simply gratuitous — I would have nothing to say about the “workshop” for finance ministers, scheduled to take place in Bahrain. There have been plenty of gratuitous conferences in our lifetime, and it looks like the one the Trump team is planning for Bahrain could be added to the list. The problem is that this conference could actually be disruptive, especially after all the serious mistakes made by the Trump administration in its efforts to finally resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.