President Donald Trump and Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman exchange documents during a signature ceremony at the Royal Palace on Tuesday, May 13.
Alex Brandon / AP
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tilting legend
Alex Brandon / AP
President Trump’s visit to the Arab Gulf States – the first big trip of his second presidency – is on the boil of national and international policy.
So far, the president has been offered a luxury plane of $ 400 million in Qatar to serve the Air Force One, a plan criticized by republican and democratic legislators. He announced how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plans to invest some $ 600 billion in the United States, including arms agreements, technological investments and AI data centers.
Trump met the acting president of Syria on Wednesday, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, calling him “hard to cook” that has a “real blow” to stabilize Syria. The Sharaa government has said for months that he wanted to normalize relations with his longtime opponent Israel.
Trump also announced that he was going to relieve sanctions against Syria. The return of these sanctions caused some confusion for Israel, which attacked Syria hundreds of times since the fall of its former dictator, Bashar al-Assad.
Thomas Friedman, columnist winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The New York Times who wrote for a long time on the Middle East, said Morning edition So far he sees the “creative possibilities” of Trump’s approach in the Middle East, in particular with regard to Syria.
Friedman said Sharaa made “incredibly positive movements towards Israel and is under pressure from a very pluralist front within Syria, Christians, Muslims and others to make a pluralist Syria.”
“Why don’t we give him at least a chance? Give him the reputation of living. So I think the president made a very good step there and I support him and I hope that the Israelis are attacking,” said Friedman.
In his conversation with Steve Inskeep of NPR, Friedman also discussed the president’s objectives for Gaza and the region in the broad sense as well as Israel’s response to Trump approaches.
This interview was slightly modified for length and clarity.
Strengths of the interview
Steve Inskeep: What do you think of the president’s journey that we have just talked about his approach to the Middle East?
Thomas Friedman: Well, Steve, from 30,000 feet, I think what the president tries to do is, the number one, broadcasts as many regional conflicts as possible and even opening the possibility of links between former opponents like Syria and Israel and Israel and Saudi Arabia. This is number one. He wants to do so so that he can then create a kind of regional security structure that would stabilize the region and prevent China. (It would be) a pro-American regional structure. He wants to do so so that he can get the American troops out of the region, reduce our expenses there. And he wants to do everything in a way that will make huge benefits for American weapons manufacturers and will sell their arms, you know, to stabilize the region. If I had to describe its strategy, I think it is this concept in four parts.
Inskeep: And what do you do with the proximity of the president to the Middle East autocrats, his decision to accept a free plane, if in fact it happens, and everything else?
Friedman: Yeah. It is a very bad idea. I mean, in addition to being a violation of the emoluments of the Constitution. If we will be effective in this region, we must be a neutral arbiter and not do personal affairs alongside the geopolitical interests of the United States of America. Bad idea. I hope it doesn’t happen.
Inskeep: But that said, what you have described could be seen in a very positive light by trying to rethink some of these former conflicts, trying to overcome some of these old conflicts, thinking of the region in a fresh way, speaking in a friendly way of the new leaders of Syria, speaking of a kind of agreement with Iran, speaking directly with Iran. Do you see creative possibilities here?
Friedman: Yeah, I see real creative possibilities. I particularly like what the president has done towards Syria. This moment reminds me of the moment after the fall of the Soviet Union and we believed in some of us that we should renounce the expansion of NATO for a certain time while we see if our dream of a democratic Russia is possible. I would recommend the Israelis the same thing. Ahmed al-Sharaa, the president of Syria, definitely has an Islamist training, but he also really made incredibly positive movements towards Israel and is under pressure from a very pluralist front in Syria Christians, Muslims and other people to make a pluralist Syria. Why don’t we give him at least a chance? Give him the reputation of living. So I think the president made a very good decision there and I support him and I hope that the Israelis are taking over it.
Inskeep: Why do you think that Israel has not been more to appear to reach out to the Syrian hand which seems to have been extended to them?
Friedman: They have reasons to be wary of Sharaa obviously. And there have been tensions, especially in Syria. There are groups opposed to the Syrians. There are Druze communities in northern Israel which are a lot of the Israeli government. There have been tensions around that. And it is a very hard government that has taken a kind of hostile vision of everyone in the region. So I hope they can see through it and see that there is an incredible opportunity here.
Syria is such a key stone. I say on the countries of the Middle East, when they are beheaded, one of the two things happens: some countries imploded and other countries explode. Syria is a country that explodes because it is made of all the different, you know, the peoples and religions of the region. It explodes instability. But if it is stabilized, it will radiate and explode much more stability. This will actually affect Iraq. This will affect Lebanon. This is the keystone of everything.
Inskeep: The president told a journalist that he had concepts for Gaza, but that there was not much concentration otherwise on this war. It was the overwhelming subject of conversation in the United States and the Middle East a year ago. Do you think you see a way to follow for the Israeli war against Hamas?
Friedman: I think that the only way to follow is that we end the fights, that Israel finds all its hostages. There is an exchange of prisoners of Palestinians for Hamas. Hamas leaders leave Gaza and you get a different leadership there, but with a permanent ceasefire. It is the only hope. This is why the president works. This is what the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu works against because the far -right madmen of his government threatened to make him fall if he does not continue the war.
The great challenge, and what worries me most in the future when the president talks about making agreements with Iran and Gaza and so on, is the implementation. Is it great to have these stories, but who will really structure these offers and who will really do the detailed work? I do not see an administration that is really good in this kind of detailed follow -up at the moment. This is what concerns me the most. But I appreciate the efforts of the headlines.
Inskeep: But you do not think that the administration has in fact a serious concept for Gaza, to use the president’s word?
Friedman: I think they have a concept, but to do it, you know, you have to be really difficult. You have to be hard with everyone. It is a hard region. If you are not ready to do it, you know, break some joints to do it and do it in a sustained diplomatic way, will not occur.
The radio version of this story was published by Reena Advani and produced by Nia Dumas. Digital was published by Treye Green.
