President Donald Trump concluded a four -day trip in the Middle East on Friday, traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
His first great foreign trip of his second term saw the United States ensure more than $ 2 billion in investment agreements in the Gulf region, according to the White House, as well as Trump announcing that he will move to lift US sanctions in Syria.
Trump also said during the trip that he believed that the United States and Tehran are “approaching to make an agreement” in Iran’s nuclear program and asked Qatar to use its influence to persuade Iran’s leadership to reach an agreement with the United States to mark their advanced nuclear program quickly.
The trip “creates some quite interesting openings and opportunities,” said Michael Hanna, director of the American program of the International Crisis Group, ABC News.
“It seems that perhaps the region, directed by the Gulf, can have some really substantive and important contributions to shape the United States policy in a better direction,” he said, how to get away from the military conflict with Iran and the Hutis and interact with Syria to stabilize the transition after the Assad family was eliminated from power.
But, he said, “one of the things that has been a big problem for Trump, traditionally, is implementation and monitoring.”
President Donald Trump speaks at the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riad, Saudi Arabia, on May 13, 2025.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
During Trump’s trip, the United States obtained more than $ 200 billion in commercial agreements with the United Arab Emirates, more than $ 243.5 billion in economic agreements and an economic exchange agreement of $ 1.2 billion with Qatar, and a commitment of $ 600 billion of Saudi Arabia to invest in the US. UU., Said the White House. Some of the agreements focused on the infrastructure of AI, energy and defense.
“More and more, he is convinced, as a former real estate developer and entrepreneur, to press for the expansion of the United States’s commercial interest should be the main business of the US government, so to speak. And it was there with that mission,” said Diochehr Doraj, professor of Political Science at the Christian University of Texas. “To the extent that this was a guiding principle, he took great steps to achieve that goal.”
But, he said, “the devil is always in details.”
“We will see how it would work in practice,” said Doraj.
Among his main ads, Trump said during a main speech in Riyadh on Tuesday that he will order the cessation of US sanctions against Syria, who has been appointed state sponsor of terrorism by the United States government since 1979, “to give them an opportunity for greatness.”
After that announcement, there are “many great question signs” in terms of implementation and monitoring, Hanna said.
“Some of these things you can do with the blow of a pen,” said Hanna, without pointing out that it is not clear how his administration or congress will react.
“It was quite clear that this is happening, so I’m going to be very seeing how first, [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio deals with this, because he can lift some of these sanctions with the blow of a pen, “said Hanna.” There are other big problems with sectoral sanctions and César law. “
“There is much to unravel,” he said.
The interim president of Syria, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, shakes the hand to President Donald Trump in Riad, Saudi Arabia, on May 14, 2025.
Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace through AP
When asked about the schedule of lifting the sanctions during the comments in Turkey on Thursday, Rubio said: “I was with the president when he made the decision to do this and included in his speech. So we have been doing a preparatory job in that regard.”
He said Trump intends to use exemption authorities under César Law, which must be renewed every 180 days.
“Ultimately, if we advance enough, we would like to see the repealed law because it will fight to find people to invest in a country when in six months, the sanctions could return,” said Rubio. “We are not there yet. That is premature. I think we want to start with the initial exemption, which will allow foreign partners who wanted to flow to help to start doing it without running the risk of sanctions. I think that as we move forward, we hope to be in a position soon, or one day, go to Congress and ask them to permanently eliminate the sanctions.”
As the negotiations are ongoing the Iran’s nuclear program, Hanna pointed out the technical and diplomatic effort that was dedicated to negotiations on the Comprehensive Comprehensive Action Plan: The Iranian Nuclear Agreement of 2015 agreed to the administration of Obama, but which Trump took the United States three years later.
“These negotiations were highly technical, very detailed, very long. And that is not the way Trump likes to operate, or [U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve] Witkoff, right? They are not small details. They are the general panorama, which makes a deal, “he said.
He added: “But for something like a nuclear agreement with Iran, there are many things that require a real agreement, and that requires a lot of technical and diplomatic capacity. And if we reach that stage, it would really be a fairly large challenge, even if everyone would reach the same page, to convert an agreement in principle into a paper agreement.”
Doraj said that Trump’s transactional foreign policy can be a short -term asset, but “the inconvenience is that there is no long -term strategy.”
“These are fast initiatives,” he said. “The pragmatic part of her – ‘Let’s see what it works. Let’s see what will take us to the treatment we want. We will learn as we move forward, and we will adopt and adjust as necessary,’ Okay, that can be an asset.
