Trump’s Middle East tour has more substance than the White House let on

There’s more to Donald Trump’s Middle East trip than billion-dollar contracts, parades of camels and a storm back home over Qatar’s offer to give the president a new Air Force One.

A tour narrowly billed by the White House as a chance for Trump to show he’s a master dealmaker is jumbling the region’s geopolitical jigsaw puzzle.

Wherever he goes, Trump brings disruption that can forge possibilities. And he takes risks – for instance, his decision on this trip to lift sanctions on Syria to give a war-ravaged nation a second chance.

But the move revives a perennial question about Trump’s entire foreign and trade policy. Can he apply himself sufficiently to reach genuine breakthroughs from openings he creates?

The White House’s obsession with lionizing Trump means his most significant initiatives are often swamped by hype.

So a deal for Qatar to buy Boeing jets worth tens of billions of dollars got more attention back home Wednesday than his encounter in Riyadh with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. The historic first meeting between US and Syrian leaders in 25 years could be the signature initiative of Trump’s tour.

Before he overthrew the murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad, al-Sharaa was a rebel leader who pledged allegiance to al Qaeda and had a $10 million US bounty on his head. Yet Trump sat with him and lifted US sanctions on his civil war-wracked country, hoping to give it a chance to unify and rescue civilians facing severe hunger.

Trump’s regional diplomatic ambitions are expanding
Trump’s geopolitical shake-up doesn’t end in Syria. He’s used the trip to build new pressure on Iran to agree to restrictions on its nuclear program – warning of military action if it refuses but clearly trying to head off the dire prospect of a new Middle East war.

His journey has also highlighted growing daylight with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who was seen as an ideological soulmate of the 47th president but who is increasingly an object of Trump’s frustration.

Behind the scenes, Trump’s team has been talking with Qatari and Saudi officials about how to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by Israel’s blockade and an onslaught that has killed tens of thousands of civilians. Netanyahu’s response has been to declare he has “no choice” but to keep fighting, and he targeted the Hamas leader who’d be needed for any peace talks, in a strike on a hospital.

There’s no sense that the US alliance with Israel is at risk. But gaps between Trump and Netanyahu have also opened over a US pact to halt rocket attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen that did not include Israel; Trump’s bypassing of the Israelis in a deal this week to free the last living American hostage in Gaza; and on the Syria sanctions decision.

Trump was not solely focused on the Middle East in recent days. He’d also hoped to fly to Turkey for a startling photo-op with Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that would have validated his thus far unsuccessful attempt to end their war. Neither rival leader is likely to show up to Thursday’s talks, prompting Trump to abandon his plans for an unexpected side trip and casting further doubt on his peace initiative.