President-elect Donald Trump, who has positioned himself as a ‘peace through strength’ candidate, faces a Middle East inflamed with recent conflicts.
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, he will have to contend with a Middle East inflamed by multiple interconnected armed conflicts.
The Biden administration has secured a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, but tensions remain high across the region, with Israel twice coming to blows with Iran in the past year, the Israel-Hamas war showing no sign of abating.
How the incoming Trump team will handle these challenges remains to be seen.
Trump’s 2024 campaign website touts the Middle East policy positions of his first term, including recognizing Israel’s territorial claims over the Golan Heights, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, working to broker normal relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors through the Abraham accords, and ending U.S. participation in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
On the other hand, the Trump team has said the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan “emboldened rogue regimes, terrorist groups, and rivals,” a trend Trump will have to contend with when he returns.
While promoting the policies of his first term and criticizing the current administration, the Trump team has offered few specifics about his Middle East policy plans once he returns to office.
“The American people re-elected President Trump because they trust him to lead our country and restore peace through strength around the world. When he returns to the White House, he will take the necessary action to do just that,” Trump campaign spokesman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.
Leavitt declined to answer specific questions about Trump’s Middle East policy plans.
Andrew Miller, a Middle East and national security policy analyst and senior fellow for the Center for American Progress, has argued that Trump has no specific foreign policy master plan.
By Ryan Morgan
