Ever since the second term of the George W. Bush administration, Washington's interest in maintaining its dominant role in the Middle East has significantly declined. Under President Donald Trump, the strategy of the United States regarding the Middle East has been a diplomatic disaster fueled by ignorance.
Selling more weapons to the region
Trump's first overseas visit was to Saudi Arabia, and it resulted in a 110-billion-U.S.-dollar arms deal. The deal was touted by the White House as the single biggest in United States' history. There are also reports that the Trump administration has accelerated a push to sell F-35 stealth fighters and advanced armed drones to the United Arab Emirates.
The president has admitted that he has little interest in the Middle East. He's even gone so far as to say that the U.S. should never have been there in the first place. But that hasn't stopped his administration from selling vast amounts of weapons there in the name of supporting jobs and manufacturing at home, despite accusations that American bombs are being used to kill civilians in an ongoing conflict in the region.
Betraying Kurdish allies
The Trump administration's America First principle has been on display more prominently in Syria than anywhere else. Late last year, after withdrawing most American troops from Syria except for the few who were left to guard the oil fields, Trump said, "we've secured the oil" and "we'll be deciding what we're going to do with it in the future."
Make no mistake, that's Syrian oil he was talking about, and it belongs to the Syrian people. But in Trump's mind, that oil should be taken by the United States as compensation for the cost of American military activity in the region. At the same time, his decision to withdraw American forces from Syria left Kurdish fighters to confront the overwhelming force of the Turkish military alone, a move described by some as a stab in the back to the Kurds, who have long been allies of the United States.
Agitating for conflict with Iran
Trump had hoped to restrict Iran's nuclear development through a new agreement that would replace the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA, which was signed by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015. However, after unilaterally withdrawing from the deal in 2018, he has failed to reach a new agreement with Iran, despite reinstating American sanctions on Tehran.
Washington recently turned to the United Nations Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran. But it suffered a stunning defeat on August 14, when the Dominican Republic and the United States itself were the only members of the Security Council willing to support this move.
And if this was not humiliating enough, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went back to the Security Council to ask it to re-impose sanctions on Iran under a so-called "snapback" clause in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. But because the United States has left the deal, it is powerless to push for this clause to be enacted, and no other country has expressed any support for this move.
Richard Hass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, perhaps put it best when he said, "America First truly has become America alone," and that Trump's unilateralism has left the United States more isolated than Iran.
Peace deal failure
On the Israel-Palestine peace process, Trump attempted to replace the traditional "land-for-peace" deal with "money-for-peace" by touting a 50 billion U.S. dollar investment scheme. However, the Palestinians have strongly rejected the plan, which asks them to give up their ambition for statehood by accepting Israeli annexation of the West Bank. As a result, the plan has gone nowhere.
And the recent agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel to establish diplomatic relationship is being seen as what it is: a political stunt to help President Trump get ahead in the polls in the upcoming general elections and a public acknowledgment of a comprehensive relationship that already existed.
There're no good words to describe the Middle East policy of the Trump administration. It's selfish, as it allows weapons to be sold without any moral consideration of the civilians who are being killed by American bombs. It's reckless, as demonstrated by the assassination of Iran's General Soleimani at the start of the year that almost led to a devastating war in the region. Betrayal is an appropriate word to describe the abandonment of the United States' ally, the Kurds. And "isolated" best defines the embarrassing situation in which Trump and his secretary of state find themselves trapped.
Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a professor of English literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran, summed up the predicament of the American president and Pompeo in a tweet about the humiliating failure of Washington's Iran policy. "Among Iranians who supported or opposed the nuclear deal, none expected Trump to tear the nuclear deal without first triggering the snapback mechanism. Trump and Pompeo are like two drunken buffoons who've locked themselves out of the house and rage at the rain. It's quite a spectacle."
More in this series:
Pathogeny for U.S. withdrawal fever
Partisan politics drags U.S. towards failed-state status
Trump against Europe: Weaponizing the relationship for his benefit
U.S. weaponizes 'identity' to protect its self-identified superiority
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