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Trump will ensure continuity of Mideast peace process

The new US president can be a lifesaver or a burden for some countries and parties in the Middle East.

The whole world is watching the United States presidential elections that will take place on November 3, but the Levant countries in particular are waiting eagerly for the result as their fate depends on it.

Whether we like it or not, the White House occupant, his party identity and his personal convictions are important not only for the Americans but to the rest of the world as well.

The new US president can be a lifesaver or a burden for some countries and parties in the Middle East.

From the endless list of sanctions and economical warfare including various manoeuvres of military intimidation, the current US president, Donald Trump, will definitely continue with his iron hand policy if he is reelected again and this will definitely upset the plans of many, especially Iran and its proxies everywhere such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq, Houthis in Yemen etc

The whole peace plan that Trump drew for the Middle East will cease if his opponent Joe Biden is elected.

In addition, Donald Trump marked an important milestone by sponsoring normalisation agreements between some Gulf countries and Israel while recently Lebanon and Israel engaged in talks to settle a dispute over their maritime border which will prevent any future war between the two countries.

Trump took drastic decisions to solve once for all the Middle East problems that every American President before him failed to because of lack of vision and weak decisions.

On the other hand, Trump’s opponent, Joe Biden, who was vice-president when Obama was at the White House, will most likely continue with the weak legacy of the Obama’s administration regarding the Iranian issue and this means he will, in exchange for reduction of sanctions on Iran, revive the nuclear deal.

While Trump wants to contain Iran and weaken its regime, Biden will use soft power through diplomatic channels to make deals while keeping the status quo and the Ayatollah regime in place, a regime that continues to starve its people to make wars in other countries like Syria and Yemen. A regime that brought nothing but misery to the Iranians since 1979 till today.

When the Iranian regime signed the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), billions of dollars were poured into the regime.

Instead of using the money on infrastructure, public institutions or to create jobs for the Iranian people, it was used to fund Iran’s proxy groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq etc.

The Iranian regime refused to listen to the voice of reason and to the demands of its population who are struggling to bring food home. Instead it kept feeding terrorism here and there, threatening the peace process in several countries.

In Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, the population showed their aversion to Iran and its proxies. They took to streets since a year and expressed their anger and frustration while their economies continued to collapse because of the bad policies of Iran.

The presidential elections will surely reshape the Middle East. Either it will bring once for all a permanent solution for this region or the curse that was brought on the Levant many years ago will continue on and on.

The world must realise by now that it will never be safe unless there is peace and prosperity in the Levant.

Christiane Waked is a political analyst based in Beirut.