Alwaght- With Trump's comeback to the White House, predictions on the foreign policy of the new US administration towards various international issues, especially the hot spots where Washington acts actively in, catch attention of the politicians and analysts.
During his election campaign, Trump's stances on Biden's foreign policy, especially in Ukraine, were extremely controversial, making many unhappy in Europe about his return to power.
However, among Washington allies perhaps no one is happier than the radical government of Israeli regime in general and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular about Trump's comeback.
Although during their campaign both of the candidates tried to beat the rival in promising to protect the Israeli security and support its ongoing genocidal wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Trump and the Republicans in general demanded further White House support to Tel Aviv in its war on Axis of Resistance and talk about avoiding any criticism against performance of the radical Israeli government led by Netanyahu.
Alwaght has discussed with Alireza Taghavi Nia, an expert of regional and international affairs, the impacts of Trump's comeback on war and the political fate of Netanyahu.
Answering the question that how much Trump's return can influence the war equations, Mr Taghavi Nia described the support for Israel of both Democratic and Republican administrations as similar, adding: "Trump will offer maximum political and economic support to Netanyahu, and there is no doubt about this. But I consider it unlikely that these supports will lead to direct military involvement [of the US]. The Biden administration has provided the maximum support that America could provide to Netanyahu. The next point is that I believe Trump's support will be a combination of political and economic measures. In the sense that he will try to exert maximum pressure on Hezbollah from within Lebanon and the Lebanese groups and factions to limit it."
This international affairs expert further held that "it is not right to think Trump is going to provide specific support to Netanyahu. Biden has done anything he could do to Netanyahu over the past year."
Asked how Trump will support warmongering of Netanyahu, Mr Taghavi Nia said: "I must point out that Trump holds apocalyptic views and his cabinet is a cabinet that is 100 percent in support of Israel and the Zionist regime. Therefore, I believe that after Trump takes office, Netanyahu's hand will be wide open to continue his policies against Iran, Lebanon and Palestine. Trump's policy is not direct intervention. It looks like that Trump is a warlike man, but he is not. He wants to show himself as a madman who goes to brink of war to wrest points from the opposite side, but in no way is he willing to engage in an extensive war, but he will open Netanyahu's hand for dangerous actions against the interests of the region, such as annexing the West Bank."
Pointing to the internal crisis hitting Israeli cabinet and the pressures from the opposition on Netanyahu to step down, Mr Taghavi Nia held that Netanyahu certainly sees Trump a God-given gift for himself. Actually, the radicals of Israeli regime will do their best to realize all of their political and security aims to protect their interests during Trump's presidency. We will definitely see further radicalization of Netanyahu and wider opening of his hand to take more hawkish stances. But it should be taken into account that Trump cannot work miracles for Netanyahu and will only continue Biden's measures for Israeli interests. But he cannot minimize the impacts of legal cases like corruption against Netanyahu or the consequences of Hamas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Storm or Israeli army weakness on the battleground.
This expert in his final comments talked about the impacts of Trump's comeback on the international efforts to settle Gaza and Lebanon crises. He said that "so far no serious international efforts have been made to check Israeli actions, and even the limited efforts by international community were blocked by Biden. Trump will certainly continue Biden's policy and political support to the Israeli regime and put economic pressures on Hezbollah. I think that he will decease support to Zelensky in Ukraine and focus on support to Israeli interests. Contrary to Biden who saw Russia the main threat, Trump will focus on, first, China and, second, Iran as main threats. This is definitely a serious threat for Iran and requires serious, special and structured planning and Tehran should not act passively. The hardline figures in the Trump administration will definitely have the most support for the Israeli regime, and the Trump administration will offer the most unprecedented support in the political history of the United States to the child-killing Israeli regime given the Republican control over the Senate and the House."
