Arab newspapers commented on the approaching date of the US presidential elections, with the start of the countdown to take place next month.
A book asked whether one of the two candidates – Donald Trump and Joe Biden – were luckier than the other, and what could be reflected in the Middle East and Gulf region from the results of these elections? Could the victory of one of them change anything in the region? And if Trump went, would he take Netanyahu with him? Will the Gulf become the scene of the election surprise?
‘Trump or Biden’
Ahmed Sayed Ahmed says in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram that Trump and Biden have “strengths and weaknesses cards.”
And he adds: “The Democrats, led by Biden, are following the strategy of employing President Trump’s failure in many files, as they hold him responsible for the outbreak of the Corona pandemic due to his failure to manage it, his recklessness and reduce its risk … the deterioration of the economy, the loss of millions of jobs, the deterioration of the lives of the American people … and the escalation of racism in … American society because of its encouragement of the extreme right-wing movements. “
Sayed Ahmed believes, therefore, that “Trump’s weaknesses are the strengths of the Democrats in winning the elections. But the problematic is that the Democrats’ betting on employing Trump’s loopholes may not mean their victory because they did not, in return, develop an alternative strategy or specific plans and mechanisms for how to address these issues.”
Despite the writer’s agreement that US foreign policy does not constitute an important factor in the presidential elections, he stresses that Trump “will use his decisions to move the American embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan to win the votes of evangelicals, as well as normalization agreements between some Arab countries and Israel, in addition to His hard-line stance towards the Iranian regime and the policy of maximum pressure on it because of its support for terrorism and the development of its nuclear and ballistic missile program. “
Sayed Ahmed asserts that, “If Trump wins, which is more likely, it will be because of Biden’s weakness and not having a strong electoral program that would be a convincing alternative to Trump and the American voter, as the weaknesses of each side are the strengths of the other side.”
Under the headline “Trump or Biden,” Bakr Sidqi says in the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that Trump’s victory “will comfort countries and effective forces, in exchange for the possibility of Biden winning, which other countries and powers hope for, and raises the concerns of countries and opposite powers.”
The writer asserts that “whether Republican Trump wins a second term or Democrat Biden, there are constants in US foreign policy, firstly related to the concept of national security, and secondly to economic interests, and both are concepts that can be interpreted, and this gives the various administrations a margin for change or stability in what is existing.”
Sedky explains: “For example, commitment to the security of Israel is one of the foundations of American foreign policy, regardless of the identity of the person sitting in the White House or his team, or the party that dominates the majority in the House and Senate.”
‘Trump’s curse’
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Regarding the election results on the chances of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remain in office, Jamal Zahalka believes in the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that if Trump loses the elections, “in this case, Netanyahu will lose a personal ally, a protective shield, and an obedient master, so that he will become more vulnerable to pressure and less able to counter them.” And the shrewd politician who controls the American president in everything related to Israel’s interests will disappear from him. “
The writer affirms that both candidates “support Israel, each in his own way … Likewise, there will be no retreat in the commitment of the two parties and the candidates to agreements and principles of strategic cooperation, which include a smooth flow of intelligence, security and military information, and ensuring Israeli security superiority.”
He believes that “the most we can expect in the American elections is to get rid of Trump’s curse, but there is no hope of getting a blessing from two hands. Trump has committed all the righteousness and has become in the eyes of many a representative of the devil on the ground to the point that his faint rival, who says nothing An angel has become mercy betting on him to get rid of the nightmare of the last four years.
The Middle East and the Gulf
The London-based Al-Arab newspaper says that “with the countdown to the most important elections in the world, it seemed remarkable for the countries of the Middle East to ignore the agenda of the candidates in the race towards the White House for the region, with the exception of Iran, and not to give it the necessary momentum, which was always present in all previous elections.”
The newspaper believes that this matter “caught the attention of observers and analysts and raised a series of questions about the gains and losses from this position, which gives more ambiguity to the future of the hottest places in terms of the intertwining of tensions, conflicts and disputes.”
And she says: “Observers are assured every day that the flame of American enthusiasm for solving the problems of the Middle East has been extinguished in an unprecedented way, and Trump appears in his position as someone moving on hot sands, as it is clear that his policy did not benefit or harm the United States and therefore he is walking in the new elections indifferent What is happening, just as with Biden. “
The newspaper asserts that “the only regional issue, on which sharp contradictions emerged, is the issue of Iran, especially the US position on the 2015 multilateral Iranian nuclear agreement.”
The London-based Arabs say: “The sharp differences attracted the attention of Iran’s leaders who hope that the American elections will lead to the easing of sanctions, which have caused great economic damage, but did not push Tehran to change its regional strategy.”
In the same newspaper, Omar Ali Al-Badawi says: “The Gulf awaits the results of the elections more than others, as a result of the impact of American foreign policy on the equations of the region that sits on the edge of a pit. Iran is the headache of the region and the capital, Washington alike.”
The writer adds that with the escalation of friction between Tehran and Washington these days, Trump places the Iranian issue “at the top of the traditional agenda of American foreign policy, increasing the flames of the file and increasing its tension.”
Al-Badawi says, “The frictions scattered in parts of the region express a harbinger of a direct and destructive clash between Washington and Iran’s tools in the region.”
The writer believes that former US President Barack Obama “strengthened Tehran’s side with a deal marred by many defects and shortcomings, and strengthened the region’s fracture by enabling the Brotherhood to rule pivotal countries.”
Al-Badawi adds, “However, the fragile dreams were changed by entering the region in a more dark tunnel, with the rise of the banners of militancy and the flow of bloodshed, whose fragments were scattered in different Arab and European capitals.”
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