This week, U.S. President Donald Trump visited the Middle East in the first major international trip of his second term. He signed an arms deal with Saudi Arabia, announced that he would lift sanctions on Syria, and spoke with Ahmed al-Shara, the new leader in Damascus—the first time an American president has met with a Syrian ruler in 25 years. Trump proclaimed the region could become “defined by commerce, not chaos.”
Many presidents have promised a new approach to the Middle East, a place “where diplomatic aspirations go to die,” wrote Philip Gordon, who was an adviser to former Vice President Kamala Harris, in a recent essay for Foreign Affairs. But Washington now has the chance to make up for that poor record. Trump has inherited “a series of opportunities” in the region because Iran’s influence has been drastically reduced. He can further sideline Tehran, start a new relationship with Syria, and pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza. “The fate of the Middle East over the next four years,” Gordon warned, “will depend in large part on whether Trump manages to take advantage of these strategic opportunities or instead squanders them with his reckless impulses.”
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