As president Trump would ‘listen to both sides’ in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Dr. Walid Phares says
One of Donald Trump’s foreign affairs advisers has told i24news that a Trump administration would seek to form a coalition with moderate partners in the Middle East in order to tackle the Islamic State group, help bring an end to the Syrian civil war and even bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Dr. Walid Phares, an expert on terrorism and the Middle East, said that a Trump presidency would “strategically dismantle ISIS,” using an acronym for the IS group.
“But in order to be able to do so in Iraq and Syria you need to have a regional coalition of Arab moderate partners. We have them. There are five Arab armies who we’ve trained, we’ve equipped them, who are eager to basically help us at least in the Sunni areas where ISIS is in control,” Dr. Phares said.
Tackling IS in Iraq would require coordination “with the Kurds in the north, with the Iraqi government in the south,” he explained. “In Syria it’s a little bit more complicated, because you have a civil war.
“So Mr. Trump thinks that first of all we need to take care of ISIS. Kurds should be involved, Arab moderates should be involved, we can be involved in certain ways and we avoid entering the civil war,” Dr. Phares continued.
“After that is done there is a whole area in Syria that will be free with moderates, then along with the Russians and the international community, we could go to negotiations between both sides and there would be the discussions over the fate of President Assad.”
Nonetheless, he ruled out intervention on the ground by the US military, but added: “It’s clear: It’s not about either American boots or no boots. You have Arab boots. You have regional boots. You have international units. We can form a coalition the same way we did for the First Gulf War against the occupation of Kuwait.
“But that needs a consensus among these Arab countries, UAE, Saudi, Jordan, Egypt, others. Israel should be consulted of course. We need to talk to the Russians as well,” Dr. Phares continued.
Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Dr. Phares said that “Donald Trump doesn’t want to go ahead of the Israelis and the Palestinians and start talking about his architecture for an issue that is very, very difficult for the Israelis, the Palestinians and Arabs in general.
“He wants to sit with both Israelis and Palestinians in the middle of the table so both sides will feel there is a real moderator,” he continued.
“We know that Mr. Trump has as good relations as any politician with the Israeli side. What he needs to do now is convince the Palestinians along with Arab allies,” Dr. Phares said.
“This is why the coalition in the region is important, not just against ISIS but to take care of the negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
“And then he will listen to both sides, he is a good negotiator, and he will try to get to a historic deal that will not just preserve peace but bring prosperity for both sides.”
Turning to the Republican presidential candidate’s controversial comments regarding a ban on Muslim immigration to the United States, Dr. Phares said that Trump made his statements “because of the fact that the Obama administration has retrieved the ideological jihadi element without which we cannot know who is extremist and who is not.
“In his last three speeches on foreign policy Mr. Trump has moved away from his first speech and is saying, ‘I want to zoom in, I want to focus on the jihadists,'” Dr. Phares continued.
“It’s really a ban on jihadists, not on Muslims. He’ll have to be a president to sit down with his agencies and his allies and Congress to figure out how to do it.
