The US elections ended with a landslide victory for Republican candidate Donald Trump, who became the 47th President of the United States, receiving 312 electoral college votes compared to 226 votes for his Democratic competitor, Kamala Harris.
Now that matters have been decided in Trump’s favor, the focus has shifted to the question of the president’s foreign policy orientations and programs, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region, whose issues and developments occupied an important place in the electoral battle, and a tangible space of Trump’s interest as a result of the developments witnessed by the region after Israeli Operation “Noah’s Flood 2023”.
The Eastern Mediterranean region occupies an important place in Washington’s foreign policy for several reasons. Regardless of the president and the party to which he belongs, the United States’ relations with Israel are of great importance. The US commitment to the “security” and existence of Israel is an unquestionable issue, and the support for Israel’s policies towards its neighborhood is unlimited, as was evident in the past year of Israel’s war and battles. To all these trends Trump has confirmed his commitment and his keenness to pursue them to the furthest extent, and he has attached to them references to peace efforts in the region, and a statement for a Palestinian state, which the Arabs have heard many times from senior American officials over the past decades.
The issue of Iran occupies a large part of Washington's attention during the era of President Trump, especially since he was the one who took the two most important measures in the relations between the two parties. The first was the cancellation of the nuclear agreement with Iran in 2018, and the second was the order to assassinate General Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Trump's policy could escalate in the coming period amid American agreement with Israel, and implicit satisfaction to Türkiye and perhaps other countries, especially in terms of addressing the issue of militias in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
If Washington's policy towards Israel and Iran is supportive to the former and opposed to the latter, then relations with most countries in the region will be in their natural order, along with a tendency towards a better phase in Washington's relations with Türkiye and the Arab countries, especially after Trump's statements about improving and developing relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , emirates of the Gulf, Jordan and Lebanon. The necessity of improving relations imposes a more active role for Washington in stopping the Israeli war on Gaza and Lebanon, and participating in restoring the situation through a solution that bring back life there to normal, after all the destructive brutality that occurred as a result of the Israeli war.
According to multiple indicators, there is also a growing American interest in the Syrian issue, heading towards changes, the outlines of which are being worked on before the president and his administration assume responsibilities. The basis for these changes will be the actual Trump’s positions on the Syrian situation, and the outcome of the president’s meetings and some of his electoral team’s members with Syrian Americans, the results of which included statements by the president that showed changes in the position on the Syrian regime. All of this goes with a pivotal idea in the Syrian solution, which is to remove Iran and its militias from Syria, an idea that Washington supports.
In short, the Eastern Mediterranean region is preparing for a new phase of American policy under the Trump administration, and this phase needs the care and action of all Arabs, for pushing US to persuade Israel in taking balanced positions. These are very difficult tasks in the current situation, but nothing prevents a serious attempt, taking into consideration that in the history of American policy towards Israel there were positions other than a blind support for its endeavors.