By: Sharmine Narwani
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March 16, 2017 "Information
Clearing House" - After weeks of saber-rattling over Iran as
the “number one terrorist state” in the world, the Trump administration appears
to have quietly dialed down the rhetoric a notch.
Here in the Middle East, however, where every peep and
creak out of Washington is scrutinized to death, interested parties haven’t
stopped speculating about a U.S. confrontation with Iran. Fifty days into his
term, Trump’s foreign-policy course remains an enigma. He swears “all options”
remain on the table with Iran—but do they?
There are already some early actions that hint at
Trump’s policy directions—and limitations—in the Middle East. In three key
military theaters where U.S. forces are currently engaged, some important
corners have been turned:
- In
northern Syria, America’s Kurdish allies just voluntarily relinquished
territory to the Syrian army and Russian forces in order to avoid a direct
confrontation with another U.S. ally and NATO member, Turkey. Washington
has rejected a Turkish role in the liberation of Raqqa, knowing that
Ankara will not tolerate the ISIS capital falling into Kurdish hands
either. It’s becoming increasingly likely that the winning formula will
see the city and its environs ceded to an authority friendly to the
Syrian government, under a Russian umbrella.
- In
northern Iraq, the fight to regain Mosul has accelerated, with Iraqi
forces liberating half of western Mosul in just twenty days. Under command
of the central Baghdad government, these fighters consist heavily of Shia
militias, many of whom have received training and equipment from Iranian
forces.
- In Yemen, where alarming western headlines warn of U.S. military blunders and overkill, the media is missing a bigger story. The U.S. bombing blitz is actually—not hypothetically, as once was the case—hitting Al Qaeda terrorists, working alongside UAE forces to target Islamist militias who everybody knows are de facto Saudi allies on the ground. Just last week, the UAE reportedly upped the ante by demanding the Saudis abandon their puppet president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi—ostensibly the “legitimate” Yemeni authority the western-backed Saudi coalition was fighting to reinstate.
