Analysts pointed out that Trump's remarks and revealed policy tendencies during his visit to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the West Bank indicate that he is seeking to ease relations with the Islamic world and seek to "reset" the US Middle East policy.
? Ease relations: Historical data show that among the 10 American presidents since Kennedy, 8 have made neighboring Canada or Mexico as their first visits. Analysts believe that after Trump took office, anti-terrorism was listed as one of the core objectives of his foreign policy, and Saudi Arabia was chosen as the first stop of his first visit, indicating that the Trump administration realized that "resetting" the relationship with the Islamic world, including Saudi Arabia, was crucial to counter-terrorism.
During his stay in Saudi Arabia, Trump not only met with many Middle Eastern leaders, but also delivered a speech to more than 50 Arab and Islamic leaders to introduce the US Middle East policy. Analysts pointed out that the tone of Trump's speech about the Islamic world was obviously softer than that at the beginning of his campaign and when he took office, indicating that he hoped to portray himself as a partner of the Islamic world rather than an enemy.
First of all, Trump changed his criticism of Islam during the election campaign and defined the war on terrorism as a contest between good and evil, not a struggle between different religions.
Secondly, Trump expressed his willingness to join hands with Arab and Islamic countries on the issue of counter-terrorism. This is different from his attitude of monitoring mosques in the United States and establishing a database of domestic Islamic believers during the campaign.
In addition, Trump did not use the expression of "radical Islamic terrorism" in his speech as in the past, reflecting the bad image left by his seeking to change his past remarks and issuing administrative orders restricting the entry of citizens of multinational Islamic countries to the Islamic world.
In an interview with American media, the State Council's former spokesman Psaki said that this speech provided an opportunity for Trump to "reset" the relationship with the Islamic world, but it was difficult to persuade the Islamic world to write off the "old scores" with a gentle speech. What measures Trump will take to improve relations with the Islamic world in the future will be closely watched by the Islamic world.
"Reset" policy: Analysts pointed out that although Trump's Middle East policy has not yet taken shape, he obviously tried to change the policy of withdrawing from the sectarian struggle in the Middle East during the last Obama administration.
The agreement on Iran's nuclear issue signed during Obama's term of office has lifted some western sanctions against Iran, improved the international environment of Iran, a Shiite power, and also triggered dissatisfaction among Sunni countries such as Saudi Arabia.
In the second half of his term, Obama tried to stay away from the regional game between Saudi Arabia and Iran and instead sought to balance the struggle between the two factions from the outside. In an exclusive interview with Atlantic Monthly in March 20 16, he called on Saudi Arabia and Iran to work together to find an effective way to get along. He also disagrees with Sunni countries such as Saudi Arabia that Iran is the root of the Middle East problem.
However, in Saudi Arabia's Middle East policy speech, Trump not only urged Arab and Islamic countries to intensify anti-terrorism, but also emphatically condemned Iran for "funding, arming and training terrorists, militia and other extremist organizations and undermining regional stability" and called on all countries to isolate Iran to force it to change its behavior. Obviously, Trump intends to win over Sunni countries such as Saudi Arabia against Iran.
At the same time, the Trump administration also signed a $1100 billion arms bill with Saudi Arabia, which is considered to be intended to help Saudi Arabia contain Iran.
In addition, during his visit to Israel, another old enemy of Iran, Trump publicly called on Israel to develop new relations with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries and form alliances to jointly fight terrorism in the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has always hoped to readjust Israel's relations with Sunni Arab countries in order to confront Iran, which is also an enemy of the country. However, it remains to be seen whether Trump can push them to form a broad "anti-Iranian alliance", because whether the Palestinian-Israeli issue can make progress will greatly affect Israel's relations with Sunni Arab countries.
Frederick Wiley, a senior researcher on Middle East issues at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the United States, said that from this visit, the United States in the Trump era once again returned to the old road of "taking sides" in the geopolitical struggle in the Middle East.