DONALD TRUMP WOWS THE ARABS

 Today is Donald Trump's first day of a four-day swing through the Gulf Arab countries. This time around he is not meeting with all the 57 members of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (like he did in 2017). This time around he is only meeting with the Gulf Arab countries.

 

ABOVE: US President Donald Trump urged Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to sign the Abraham Accords with Israel during their meeting ahead of the GCC summit in Riyadh on Wednesday.

BELOW: Also today 14 May 2025 in Riyadh, President Donald Trump meets GCC Arab countries.

• Trump looking to normalize relations with Syria's Sharaa
• meeting one day after Trump said US lifting sanctions on Syria
• Trump said Sharaa has "tremendous opportunity to do something historic" 
• Trump urged Sharaa to "tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria, deport Palestinian terrorists, help US prevent resurgence of ISIS, assume responsibility for ISIS detention centers in northeastern parts of the country."
• Shaara recognized "opportunities" of Iranians leaving Syria??
• Saudi Crown Prince also present, Erdogan joined by video conference
• Saudi would support Syria's economic recovery 
• Saudi thanked Trump for lifting US sanctions on Syria
• Trump's business deals in Middle East
• Trump's first day of a four-day swing through Gulf 
• business deals, US$600b commitment from Saudi Arabia 
• plus US$142 billion in US arms sales to Saudi
• Later Wed Trump will fly to Qatar 
• Qatar expected to announce hundreds of billions US$ investments in the US

My Comments:

President Trump  has certainly wowed the Arabs. He has very subtly made Saudi Arabia his deputy-Sheriff in the Middle East. At a cost of US$742 billion to the Saudis. 

Iran is now in the past tense. This is the rise of Sunni Islam again. Erdogan is not an Arab but he joined Trump, Saudi Arabia and the Syrian strongman Ahmad al Sharaa aka al Jolani via video conferencing.

Another super historical event that happened (inside Turkey) TWO DAYS ago is that the PKK the Kurdish rebel army that has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey for 40 years has signed an armistice with Turkey to lay down their arms and disband.

I think the deal here is that the Kurdish people in Syria (who also live along the Syrian - Turkish border) will get their own autonomous Kurdish region. This Syrian Kurdish region will be contiguous with the Iraqi Kurdish region in Iraq right next door.  The Kurdish people (over 45 million of them) are scattered across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

This map here gives you an exact idea of where in the Middle East the 45 million Kurdish people are concentrated. 

It is also the long term goal of the Israelis that another new non-Arab, non-Persian, Sunni Muslim state will arise as a barrier between Israel and Sunni Arabs as well as Shia Iranians. That shall be Kurdistan or an amalgam of Kurdish autonomous regions that are adjacent to each other.  Turkey may have solved its PKK Kurdish rebellion but I think Syria, Iraq (and Iran) will lose territory to a future Kurdistan. The Kurdish people need a Mehrang Baloch type personality to unite them.

Tonite President Trump would have landed in Qatar - the next leg of his trip. Qatar is the irritating fly on the buffalo's butt.  A totally mindless and quite useless emirate.  It is best for President Trump to talk to them with a fly swatter in hand. Lets see what happens tomorrow in Qatar.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.