Published January 10, 2024
PALM BEACH, Florida — Former President Donald Trump told Breitbart News exclusively that he believes had the 2020 election not gone the way it did and were he still president right now, a path to true peace in the Middle East was possible.
Instead, with Democrat President Joe Biden taking office after the 2020 election, the region has further destabilized and no new countries have joined the historic Abraham Accords since. During Trump’s presidency, several Arab nations joined the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between them and the Jewish state of Israel. The countries that joined during the Trump administration were the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. Trump says that several others were on the verge of joining, including even possibly Iran, but Biden taking office and reverting to a failed approach to the Middle East scuttled the efforts and has disintegrated any progress. Not one country has joined the Abraham Accords during Biden’s entire presidency.
“You would have had every country sign, including possibly Iran, into the Abraham Accords if the election wasn’t rigged,” Trump told Breitbart News in a more-than-two-hour-long exclusive interview here at Mar-a-Lago. “By this time, you would have had every country—Saudi Arabia, and maybe even Iran—signed.”
Trump argued that his approach to the Iranians—he was ruthless with them financially through sanctions, and obviously ordered the killing of Qassem Soleimani—was going to force the Islamic Republic of Iran to the bargaining table.
“Iran, as you know, was broke with me. Now, they’ve got $250 billion,” Trump said. “I’m not even talking about the $6 billion and the $10 billion. They have $250 billion now, but they were broke. There was no money for Hamas, no money for Hezbollah.”
Trump also said that if he were president the Hamas terrorists in Gaza—which are largely funded by the Iranians—never would have been able to launch the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
“It [the October 7 attack in Israel] never would have happened,” Trump said. “We would have taken much more decisive action if it did. I don’t understand these people.”
As Breitbart News’s Joel Pollak reported this week, Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken has signaled a return to the failed foreign policy vision for the Middle East that peace between Israelis and Palestinians must be a precursor to peace between Israel and other Arab nations.
Trump also noted during the interview that Biden, while “vicious” with political opponents like him here at home, is “not vicious” against foreign adversaries of the United States. He said that he thinks Biden and his family members taking money from foreign countries like the Chinese Community Party proves that the current president is a “Manchurian candidate,” and that he is “compromised”—which is why Biden is letting adversaries of the United States rise.
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SOURCE: www.breitbart.com
RELATED: Saudi Arabia Offers Its Price to Normalize Relations With Israel
The Saudi crown prince is seeking a civilian nuclear program and security assurances from President Biden, a steep price for an agreement long sought by Israel.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi officials are seeking guarantees from the United States in exchange for normalizing relations with Israel.Credit…Ludovic Marin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Published March 11, 2023
WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia is seeking security guarantees from the United States, help with developing a civilian nuclear program and fewer restrictions on U.S. arms sales as its price for normalizing relations with Israel, people familiar with the exchanges say.
If sealed, the deal could set up a major political realignment of the Middle East.
Riyadh’s ambitious request offers President Biden the chance to broker a dramatic agreement that would reshape Israel’s relationship with the most powerful Arab state. It could also fulfill his pledge to build on the Trump-era Abraham Accords, which brokered similar diplomatic deals between Israel and other Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
A normalization deal would also fulfill one of the most cherished goals of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, capping what he considers a legacy of increasing Israel’s security against its archenemy, Iran. The deal would strengthen regional alliances, analysts say, while downgrading the relative importance of the Palestinian issue.
Officials and experts in the United States and the Middle East were divided on how seriously to take the proposal, given the frosty relations between Mr. Biden and Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince.
News of the Saudi proposal emerged hours before a separate agreement, brokered by China, which paved the way for Riyadh to restore diplomatic relations with Iran for the first time in seven years. Some analysts called the deal evidence that Saudi Arabia had lost trust in the United States as a defender of its security and is drawing nearer to China while seeking to ease its longtime rivalry with Iran as a hedging strategy. The development could possibly create new urgency in the Biden administration to broker an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but the immediate effects were unclear.
Still, there are numerous challenges standing in the way of a Saudi-Israeli deal. Violence between Israel and the Palestinians has been rising under the country’s new right-wing government in recent weeks. The Saudi government has issued repeated public condemnations of Israeli actions, dimming the near-term prospect of a deal. Analysts say a major escalation such as a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising, would render an agreement impossible.
Saudi officials have said they cannot forge normal relations with Israel — a step that would include formal diplomatic interactions and likely also trade and travel agreements — before a Palestinian state is established. But some people familiar with the discussions said they believe the Saudis, who have been building closer unofficial ties to Israel, would settle for less than that. The discussions were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s interesting for a number of reasons,” said Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel in the Clinton administration.
Mr. Netanyahu “wants it badly, and he can only get it with Biden’s help,” Mr. Indyk said. “That creates a situation where Biden has leverage over Netanyahu to persuade him that nothing good can happen with Saudi Arabia if he allows the situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to explode.”
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SOURCE: www.nytimes.com
RELATED: Two years after Abraham Accords, worrying trends emerge amid achievements
While trade and diplomatic ties continue to expand, polls show public support in nations that normalized ties has plummeted — and it is unclear whether others will sign on
US President Donald Trump, center, with, from left, Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, during the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, September 15, 2020, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Published September 15, 2022
In Israel’s telling, the Abraham Accords have been an unqualified success since their signing exactly two years ago on the White House lawn.
Welcoming United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the President’s Residence on Thursday, President Isaac Herzog called the agreements “a paradigm change in the Middle East, of sounding new voices, of painting new horizons for our children and their future and a celebration of life and change.”
The accords, which normalized Israel’s ties to the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, have certainly changed the Middle East, and there is no shortage of achievements to point at. Trade between the UAE and Israel is expected to reach more than $2 billion in 2022, well up from the $1.2 billion in bilateral trade last year.
Though the trade relationships are impressive, the emerging diplomatic ties and strategic dialogue are just as important. An Israeli attaché was appointed to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli tourists have visited Morocco and the UAE in the past two years, and Israeli leaders and ministers regularly fly to visit their new partners.
Despite all the accomplishments, not every aspect of the new relationships is progressing smoothly.
“There is an asymmetry in the Abraham Accords,” Moran Zaga, an expert on the Gulf region at Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, told The Times of Israel.
“People think that there is full normalization and that there is acceptance, but most of the Emirati, Bahraini and even Moroccan public still has a ways to go before they completely accept Israelis and Israel. We’re not there yet entirely.”
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SOURCE: www.timesofisrael.com
