Trump visiting Gulf Arab states while crises flare in Gaza and Iran

By JON GAMBRELL and TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press RIYADH Saudi Arabia AP On his trip this week to the Middle East U S President Donald Trump will visit Saudi Arabia Qatar and the United Arab Emirates though his bulk pressing regional challenges concern two other countries Israel and Iran After ending a ceasefire two months ago Israel is intensifying the war in the Gaza Strip where a blockade on food medicine and other supplies is worsening a humanitarian dilemma And Iran an enemy of Israel and a rival of Saudi Arabia stands on the cusp of being able to develop nuclear weapons Yet Trump will focus his attention on three energy-rich nations home to existing or planned Trump-branded real estate projects places where he aims to leverage American economic interests to do what he personally revels in making business deals This is his happy place mentioned Jon B Alterman a senior vice president at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies His hosts will be generous and hospitable They ll be keen to make deals They ll flatter him and not criticize him And they ll treat his family members as past and future business partners Trump declared Sunday he was ready to accept a luxury Boeing - jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar prompting criticism from specific Democrats and allies of the president Trump won t be able to avoid diplomacy on Gaza or Iran The Gulf countries hosting him are also interested in easing the regional tensions that emanate from these two places Trump can easily points a win by reassuring them of America s strategic commitment to the region demonstrating consistent messaging and generally rising above the fray analysts Elizabeth Dent and Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute for Near East Protocol wrote Friday Trump doesn t plan to visit Israel By not scheduling a trip to Israel during his first trip to the region during his second term as president Trump is reinforcing a feeling in Israel that its interests may not be top of mind for him That sense intensified last week when Trump revealed that the U S would halt its strikes on the Houthis an Iran-backed rebel group in Yemen that agreed to stop its attacks on American vessels in the Red Sea Related Articles Deputy attorney general who defended Trump in hush money trial named acting Librarian of Congress House Republicans unveil Medicaid cuts that Democrats warn will leave millions without care Trump s reshaping of higher learning tests America s appeal for international students Trump signs executive order setting -day deadline for drugmakers to lower prescription drug costs Trump promises to order that the US pay only the price other nations do for certain drugs The Houthis attacks on Israel did not appear to be covered by that deal which came as a surprise to Israel according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic issue Days after the deal between the U S and the Houthis and despite a two-day Israeli assault on Houthi targets a missile from Yemen again set off air raid sirens in Israel Then Israel s military warned Sunday that Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen could be targeted again Trump s move to launch negotiations with Iran over its nuclear undertaking also jarred Israel which fears a deal that would not be strict enough to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon or rein in its assistance for regional militant groups Israel had hoped that Trump might provide military assistance in any strike it carried out on the country s nuclear facilities an action that is unrealistic so long as there are negotiations or if they reach a deal That has raised questions in Israel over Trump s reliability on other major issues like a long-sought normalization deal with Saudi Arabia as part of any defense pact the administration may reach with the kingdom Saudi Arabia has explained it would only normalize ties with Israel in exchange for crucial concessions for the Palestinians toward statehood something the current Israeli cabinet is unlikely to agree to Israel has mentioned it will hold off on expanding the war in Gaza until after Trump s visit leaving the window open for a new ceasefire deal to materialize Hamas and Trump stated that the last living American hostage in Gaza Edan Alexander will be freed as part of efforts to establish a ceasefire though it is not clear what involvement Israel had in that deal Still Trump has given Israel free rein in Gaza and like Israel blames Hamas for any civilian casualties U S Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee played down any significance to Trump s decision not to visit the country saying in interviews with Israeli media that his visit to the region was focused on economic issues No major breakthrough in Iran nuclear talks For Iran much depends on the talks it is having with the U S over its rapidly advancing nuclear initiative A communicated two-month deadline to reach a deal likely has passed as U S representatives signal America may push for Iran to give up enrichment entirely something Tehran has insisted is a red line Although four rounds of talks mediated by Oman have not led to a major breakthrough they have gone into the so-called expert level meaning specifics about any feasible accord likely have been discussed Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled over the weekend to both Saudi Arabia and Qatar ahead of Trump s trip Iran likely is trying to pass messages to the U S while signaling its interest in continuing the talks Iranian functionaries increasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon while Trump and Israel have both threatened to strike Iranian nuclear sites if a deal isn t reached The Islamic Republic is running out of options Its business activity has cratered since Trump in unilaterally pulled America out of their initial nuclear deal with world powers And Iran s self-described Axis of Resistance a group of aligned nations and militant groups including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon has been mauled since the Israel-Hamas war began Iran also faces internal political pressure including from women increasingly refusing to wear the state-mandated headscarf or hijab There is one thing that unites greater part Iranians however pride over the Persian Gulf Trump s consideration of having America uniformly call the body of water the Arabian Gulf instead drew fierce criticism from across the country This gulf has unfailingly been the Persian Gulf and it will forever remain the Persian Gulf Tehran s Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami explained Trump s trip still haunts the Gulf After starting his trip in Saudi Arabia Trump will then go to Qatar which not long ago communicated plans for a Trump-branded improvement there FILE Journalists chat as video of a plane is shown on a screen while landing at at Al Ula airport in Saudi Arabia Jan AP Photo Amr Nabil file This tight embrace of the president comes after his first trip to the Middle East in apparently sparked what became known as the Qatar problem That is when Bahrain Egypt Saudi Arabia and the UAE boycotted Qatar over its patronage of Islamists in the region and its ties to Iran with which it shares a massive offshore natural gas field The dispute grew so serious that Kuwait s ruling emir at the time Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah suggested on a visit to the White House there could have been military action Trump initially criticized Qatar as having historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level at the start of the boycott Less than a year later he praised Qatar and rolled that back The four nations ended their boycott just before Biden took office Any plane gifted to the U S by Qatar could be converted into a promising presidential aircraft U S authorities stated which would amount to the president accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign authorities This was just a gesture of good faith from Qatar which knew that Boing had encountered delays building the next generation of the Air Force One aircraft Trump noted Monday at the White House Goldenberg informed from Tel Aviv Israel AP reporter Darlene Superville in Washington contributed