The US-Arab Relationship in the “Age of Trump”
by James J. Zogby
As US President Donald Trump and Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei trade barbs, a nervous Arab world is caught in the middle.
Earlier this week
Iran’s Supreme Leader made headlines thanking President Trump for
“revealing the true face of America.” While much of Ayatollah Khamenei’s
criticism was directed at the Administration’s hardline policy and
threat to “put Iran on notice,” he zeroed in on the disastrous White
House Executive Order and its impact on refugees and immigrants and
visitors from seven majority Muslim countries. At one point, in his
remarks Khamenei, speaking of Trump, said “Now with everything he is
doing—handcuffing a child as young as five at an airport—he is showing
the reality of American human rights” (correction: a child of five was
detained in the wake of President Trump’s Executive Order, but he was
not handcuffed).
This news item and
the nasty and childish Twitter exchange and war of words between Iran’s
religious leader and the president of the United States brought home the
intimate connection between US domestic and foreign policies and
encapsulated the dilemma that will be faced by America’s Arab allies in
the “Age of Trump.” It reminded me of two stories from the first George
W. Bush administration—both involving Saudi Arabia’s then Crown Prince
Abdullah.http://lobelog.com/the-us-arab-relationship-in-the-age-of-trump/#more-37992
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