Huge Development as Trump Gets Ready to Tour Middle East – POTUS Moving Forward Without Netanyahu: Report
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President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies are extending even to the Middle East, according to new reports.
The president, about to embark on a visit to three countries in the region, is moving forward with his agenda amid a reported rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Hebrew-language daily newspaper Israel Hayom reported Thursday.
“Sources close to the president report that the U.S. president is disappointed with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the newspaper reported, according to a Google translation.
At the heart of the current dispute appears to be Trump’s conviction that Netanyahu pushed now-former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to back military action against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that Waltz “appeared to have engaged in intense coordination with Netanyahu about military options against Iran ahead of an Oval Office meeting between the Israeli leader and Trump.”
There have been other signs of a split between the Trump administration and Israel — particularly Trump’s announcement this week of a truce with the Yemen-based Houthi terrorist group.
The Houthis agreed not to attack U.S. shipping in the Red Sea in return for an end to American military raids, according to Politico.
Israel, which has been on the receiving end of Houthi missile attacks, was caught by surprise by the development, according to CNN.
Trump’s visit to the Middle East will begin May 13 in Saudia Arabia, according to Axios. A summit there will include the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.
After leaving Saudi Arabia, Trump will visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to Axios.
He is not scheduled to visit Israel on the trip.
Trump has compiled a strong record of pro-Israel actions — most symbolically when he moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2018. But he’s apparently making clear that U.S. relations with other Middle Eastern countries won’t be constrained by its ties to Israel.
That could lead to some major shifts in American policy.
For instance, The Times of Israel reported Thursday that the Trump White House is willing to explore exporting nuclear-energy technology to Saudi Arabia without making it conditional on Riyadh establishing diplomatic ties with Jerusalem.
“President Trump is determined to move forward with a significant deal with Saudi Arabia, even without Israeli involvement,” a senior American official said Monday, according to The Jerusalem Post, which cited the Israeli television station N12.
The remarks came at a meeting between the official and familes of hostages held by the terrorist group Hamas, the report stated.
“The ceasefire agreement with the Houthis is just a prelude, and if Israel doesn’t come to its senses, even the ‘Deal of the Millennium’ will happen without it,” the official said, according to the report.
Trump made it clear on the campaign trail that his foreign policy decisions would be guided by how they will benefit the United States. That position helped win him the November election, and “America First” has remained the motto of his administration.
But Israel’s prominence in American politics could make the latest move especially sensitive.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a veteran Republican lawmaker and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, was likely speaking for many in the GOP when he published a post on the social media platform X on Thursday warning that normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel should be the baseline for further deals between the U.S. and Riyadh.
“I have been working on and supportive of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel for years. This historic agreement would effectively end the Arab-Israeli conflict and allow the region to march toward the light and away from darkness, building on the historic Abraham Accords,” he wrote.
“However, I would like to make it crystal clear that I will never support a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia or other elements of a proposed deal that does not include normalizing the relationship with Israel as a part of the package. Normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel is an essential element.”
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