Trump and GCC

In the past two weeks, the world was busy with the inauguration of Republican Donald Trump. The media published speculations and predictions that were often worrying and cynical about what the most powerful man in the world will do - fateful decisions over very important and delicate issues which the new administration may support or reject.

I have spent some time reading many reports and statements issued by Trump’s advisors. We must admit that the American people chose their leader for the next four years, and whether we like it or not, we have no other choice but to accept this fact and deal with it.

It is very clear that every country in the world is considering the US presidency from the corner of their interests, and so I will look at the new US presidency from this angle as well. How the new US presidency will balance the equation of the strategic partnership and alliance with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in order to maintain mutual interests?

I came to the conclusion to not worry about the possible decisions by the new presidency with regards to the safety and security of the GCC. I agree that we are facing a new president who is different from others and may deal with some urgent issues in an unfamiliar way that may seem hasty and prejudiced, but there are rules and policies concerning the position of the United States which he will not be able to overcome or deny.

There is no doubt that there are urgent challenges facing Trump now, including relations with China, the Iranian nuclear file, the relationship with Europe and NATO, the shape of US-Russia relations, the Syrian issue, the Palestinian case and the Arab-Israeli conflict. So far, it seems that the new administration has not specified its priorities and is still studying all options.

Except for the US decision to set up safe zones around Syria, which means preventing Syrians from leaving their country, there is no solid opinion over how to end the bloody war there. I believe the civil war in Syria will not end any time soon, which means the Gulf region has to keep fighting IS, terrorists and extremists to preserve internal security and borders. Personally, I am in favor of the safe zones. The question now is how to implement this resolution in coordination with Turkey, Russia and financial support from the Gulf states.

I do not support Syrians migrating to America or Europe or anywhere else because it is not logical to offload citizens from a country and expect them to integrate in a different culture and foreign Western lands. Some media reports published a debate about whether the United States should classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and impose sanctions. This is a sensitive resolution, because the Muslim Brotherhood in some countries, including Kuwait, has no terrorist or criminal activities, while this is not the case in Egypt for example. I believe that such a classification of the entire organization will complicate relations with Turkey, which is a key US ally in the war against IS and terrorism in Syria.

Trump’s decision to stop issuing visas to citizens of Syria and six other countries - Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen - is a purely security decision. Kuwait also bans the entry of several nationalities as well. This is required to maintain the security of states, which is a red line.

The new president is a businessman who has significant commercial ties with Gulf states, and I don’t think he will even try to jeopardize his commercial interests for no reason. He is not against Muslims, but extremist Muslims. For example, Islamist parties in Syria kill Muslims daily - are we supposed to support this criminality? This extremism is unacceptable, whether from Trump or others. Gulf states are historic allies of America but faced a lot of apathy and indifference in dealing with US foreign policy, especially since the previous US administration was allied with Iran and Russia.

I believe the US-GCC relationship will not be affected by electoral statements and the strategic partnership will remain constant.