(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the US presidential election that is to be held on November 8, in almost all of his speeches lashed out at the principles governing the US foreign policy, particularly during the past eight years of President Barack Obama's presidency. Trump in explanations of his programs maintained that once he makes his way to the White House, he will give the American foreign policy deep shifts, and will “restore superiority and power of the US.”
A great deal of the US foreign policy that Donald Trump looks forward to adopt if he becomes president is related to West Asia region. In fact, in the eyes of the Republican candidate, the weak policies and plans of President Obama over the past years have caused the US power in the important West Asia region to see a serious decline.
Following are Trump’s favorable US foreign policy principles for West Asia. To see what changes Trump will introduce to the American foreign policy in West Asia once he wins the country’s presidential race on November 8, one should bring in spotlight the most crucial principles of Donald Trump’s West Asian policy in four categories as follows:
1. Reviewing the regional alliances
One of the serious criticisms that the Republican candidate directed against Obama's policies in his speeches is the failure of the president’s foreign policy team is getting the US allies in the region to the side of Washington’s policies. According to Trump’s ideas, in recent years and after eruption of the massive West Asian crises the regional allies of Washington observed no need to move in line with policies of the US and did not shoulder political, economic, and human expenses. Trump argues that weakness and infirmness of President Obama in supporting the US allies are the most significant factors that caused them to no longer set hope on the US’ backing. This issue at the same time has pushed the rivals of the US in West Asia like Moscow to even look down on the Washington’s strength. As part of his argument against Obama’s policy, Trump gives the agreement with Iran over its nuclear program as an example, arguing that this was one of the factors that fueled the distrust of regional allies in Washington. Accordingly, Trump asserts that should he is elected president of the US, he will seek the policy of moving away from Iran and even imposing more sanctions on Tehran in a bid to restore trust of the US regional allies. Furthermore, he said that Washington will support only countries that in practice display loyalty to and a will for company with the US policies. In this case the presidential candidate mostly directed his words to Turkey and President Erdogan personally.
2. Scaling down US military costs in West Asia and making the backed countries “pick up all expenses”
Additionally, Trump said that the “inappropriate policies” of Obama’s foreign policy team have made the US grappling with the heavy debts of over $1 trillion. While the US as a member of NATO supports regional allies and pays a large part of the costs of this military organization in West Asia, other countries, excluding 4 countries, pay nothing for expenses. Additionally, Washington is supporting states that make no pays of any kind for the service they receive. This comes while reportedly Washington pays a cost of $1 million per month for air defense of the security of countries that are “ostensibly” allies of the US. But Trump argues that What Washington sees is that they act just against the American politics. So, the Republican Trump vowed that if he becomes president of the US, he will make the allies to pay in exchange for the US military and economic support or they should be responsible for defending themselves.
3. Trying to restore order and stability in West Asia through saving conventional and counterterrorist governments
Trump seriously called the US invasion of Iraq and intervention in Libya that lead to fall of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as disasters. According to Trump, by removing Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein the US allowed rise of a power vacuum in these two countries. This, in turn, resulted in these two countries becoming hotbeds for the terrorist forces, against which the US launched preemptive war following 9/11 terror attacks. Trump believes that if Iraq’s Saddam and Libya's Gaddafi were not overthrown, the West Asia and these two countries had better conditions than now. In one of his speeches on July 5, 2016, Donald Trump said Saddam Hussein was very bad but US' invasion of Iraq was a mistake. Based on these stances by him, once Trump wins the post of president, one of his crucial West Asian policies will be preventing fall of traditional regimes that in a way provide security and stability at home to keep the terrorism away. This policy is a kind of conservative policy with an aim of offering an all-out backing for the dictatorships that stand as Washington’s allies in the region.
4. Getting close to Russia to settle West Asian conflicts
In his addresses, Trump disparaged Obama administration’s foreign policy approach in dealing with Russia. The Republican candidate noted that Washington-Moscow relations have seen the lowest levels of coordination and cooperation since end of the Cold War time in 1991. Also criticizing Obama’s policy in Ukraine’s crisis, Trump believes that the US should consider constructive joint work with Russia based on win-win principles. He also said that Washington needed to reach accords with the Russian President Vladimir Putin over West Asia and look at Russia as an international superpower. Coming, against, Obama’s stances, Trump said that China abused the US supportive stances and in the future could rise as serious threat to Washington. So, he argued that instead of siding with China and opposing Russia, the US should regard the policy of constructive interactions with Russia. Actually, it can be noted that if Donald Trump finds his way to the White House, his West Asia approach will be based on aiming at a Washington-Moscow agreement. Accordingly, we can imagine emergence of a new order in West Asia that will be underpinned by a constructive accord and perhaps alliance of these two global powers.
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