President Trump Touts Israel-Bahrain Agreement
The Bahrain WTC at Manama, Bahrain, September 2013. Photo via Flickr
Coming after previous announced deals with the UAE, a joint statement touted by President Trump adds Bahrain to a forthcoming White House signing ceremony.
Joint Statement of the United States, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the State of Israel pic.twitter.com/xMquRkGtpM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2020
President Donald Trump said Friday that Israel and Bahrain have agreed to the “establishment of full diplomatic relations,” marking the second time in a month an Arab Gulf nation has announced new ties with the Jewish state and further reshaping alliances in the Middle East.
Unveiling the new agreement from the Oval Office, Trump cast the move as a step toward peace in the region. He has worked to broker accords between Arab nations and Israel that he hopes will lead to a broader peace deal.
“Another HISTORIC breakthrough today!” Trump tweeted.The announcement came less than a week ahead of a White House signing ceremony between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that will bring Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Emirati officials to Washington.
As a condition of that agreement, Netanyahu agreed to shelve plans for now to annex sections of the West Bank. He has not ruled out resuming the annexation in the future.
Bahrain’s foreign minister will join Israel and the UAE for the signing ceremony currently scheduled for next Tuesday, according to the statement from Trump.
The announcement comes two months ahead of the US presidential election, where Trump hopes his efforts to forge foreign agreements will help sway voters. He has touted his support for Israel to Evangelicals in particular.
Bahrain, a tiny island nation that is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, is regarded in some ways as an extension of Saudi Arabia, partly because they are physically linked by a causeway but also because the Bahraini monarchy is heavily reliant on Riyadh.
Officials said the agreement with Israel announced on Friday could likely not have happened without Saudi Arabia’s blessing, signaling that Bahrain may serve as a test case for a future Saudi-Israel deal.
Any news of any kind involving peace in the Middle East is good news, but it is hard to get overly excited. This announcement, much like the Bosnia and Kosovo one last week, is long on aspiration and short on details. “Normalized” is a well and good thing, as is the behind-the-scenes hand of Saudi Arabia allowing it all. But the devil is in the details in diplomacy, such as having actual working relationships, embassies, signed agreements and treaties, and so forth. Frankly, the Trump administration that is not known for its carefulness is even less so in foreign policy, preferring large gestures to hard results.
So, while it is good news, the latest peace deal in the Middle East is very much in the category of “to be determined.”
Presidents have gotten Peace Prizes for less.Report
Indeed. Trump has now picked up a second nomination for the Kosovo Serbia agreement, along with the parties involved in that.
And Saudi Arabia decided to allow El Al to overfly the kingdom.Report
Something fascinating that happened (on the Wikipedia, naturally):
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https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-campaign-misspells-nobel-peace-prize-in-fundraising-ad-2020-9Report
https://nypost.com/2020/09/09/trump-nominated-for-nobel-peace-prize-by-norwegian-official/Report
Personally, I think that the last sentence is just trolling.Report
Does anyone know if there’s a side deal coming where they pledge not to dismember American reporters with a bone saw?Report
Not being able to tell the difference between Saudi Arabia and the other countries in the region is why we invaded Iraq 18 years ago.Report
It seems like an area of international relations that could be explored. For instance, is murdering an American an unfriendly act, and if so, wouldn’t there be consequences?Report
Are we not all Americans?
Even the people who only live in America without becoming a citizen?
How’s this? We’ll kill someone completely unrelated to Saudi Arabia in retaliation, how’s that?Report
“Living in” + “working in”= “completely unrelated to”?
I mean, in Saudi Arabia, sure. Kill one of their “guest workers” and probably at most you’d pay a small fine for the inconvenience to their employer. But, you know, the spend hundreds of billions of imaginary dollars here, so whatever.Report
If you’d rather we kill people than establish peace deals, I completely understand. (Hey, it’s the anniversary of many of us really wanting a lot of people to die.)
Trump really, really messed this one up.
He could have had Mohammed bin Salman garroted and gotten cheers from pretty much everybody.
Woulda coulda shoulda.
But the deal with Bahrain is still pretty good, I guess.Report
Kill him? What?
Oh, I see.. If you appoint the worst Secretary of State in history (the one who did his best to destroy the Foreign Service), and follow him with now the worst Secretary of State in history (the one who made State into a branch of the Trump campaign), I suppose diplomacy is no longer an option.
And they are spending imaginary trillions of dollars here.Report
And Trump does seem to have a knack for peace treaties between countries that have never been at war.Report
“If you appoint the worst Secretary of State in history…”
You mean Clinton, who kick-started the slave trade in Libya, after precipitating the European immigration crisis?Report
For instance, is murdering an American an unfriendly act, and if so, wouldn’t there be consequences?
Maybe we should ask Obama that?Report
I think the real crime was the murder of the nephew of one of the world’s largest international arms dealers, (who in the 1980’s was worth $10 billion in 2020 dollars). The “journalist ” nephew pushed for Saudi Arabia to become an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent of al Qaeda, al Nusra, and ISIS. Of course that probably made him one of the least anti-American writers that the Washington Post employs.Report