{"id":26616,"date":"2026-08-08T10:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/?p=26616"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:37:08","slug":"president-trump-beware-the-motivations-of-regional-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/08\/president-trump-beware-the-motivations-of-regional-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"President Trump: Beware the Motivations of Regional ‘Friends’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies have… been targeting their neighbors’ civilian infrastructure. Perhaps to these countries, a “deal,” even a bad one, sounds as if it might free them of Iranian threats without any cost. Their security calculations have to be quite different from ours: Why not just sit back and let America and Israel do all the heavy lifting?<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The problem, of course, as the US has seen again and again, like Charlie Brown’s football, is that any deal signed with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would only postpone its threats to the oil and gas infrastructure of neighboring countries.<\/em><\/p>\n

A second, more strategic concern is whether Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan are interested in simply charming Trump into letting them wait him out. After he is safely out of office, they can then resume their Muslim Brotherhood-inspired expansion of Islam from better locations, such as right on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.<\/em><\/p>\n

Trump has made clear that he seeks genuine peace in the Middle East and broader participation in frameworks that normalize relations with Israel. Promises to join those frameworks are welcome \u2014 if they are real. The shower of “poison pill” conditions put forth, however, signals that they are not. They appear to function mainly as devices to postpone a decisive resolution of the Iranian threat. Regional media and political cultures in some of these countries still carry strong anti-American and anti-Israel currents.<\/em><\/p>\n

The United States correctly requires that policy rest on American interests alone, not on the preferences of mediators whose threat perception and long-term goals might well diverge from Washington’s.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Iranian regime’s core ideology \u2013 like that of the Muslim Brotherhood, followed by others in the region \u2014 includes the destruction of both America and Israel. No version of this ideology is compatible with American security.<\/em><\/p>\n

America’s clear national interest is the total surrender of the Iranian regime’s capacity to threaten anyone… Any country that resists this outcome is, by definition, prioritizing other agendas. These might include jockeying for regional influence, Islamist or anti-Israel orientations, or a desire to preserve some weakened form of the Iranian regime until political circumstances in Washington change. America should no more want the IRGC continuing to rule Iran than it would have wanted the Nazi Party to continue ruling Germany.<\/em><\/p>\n

US President Donald J. Trump, in Operation Epic Fury, provided the\u00a0only\u00a0\u2014 and truly bold \u2014 confrontation with the Iranian regime by any American president. No prior leader dared to act with such resolve, or really at all. Many, in fact, actually helped\u00a0finance<\/a>\u00a0Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs<\/em><\/p>\n

For decades, successive US administrations settled for temporary freezes that enabled Iran to build its war machine. Trump, instead, ordered decisive military action that significantly damaged Iran’s military capabilities: navy, ballistic missile infrastructure, air defenses, and nuclear program. This achievement is beyond dispute and should be the starting point of any serious discussion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet, countries that present themselves as friends of the United States \u2014 or even as friends of Trump \u2014 such as Turkey, Qatar, and Pakistan, have repeatedly stepped in at exactly the moments when Iran’s regime found itself under maximum pressure and have made themselves supposed mediators.<\/em><\/p>\n

Most recently, after Trump\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0that Iran would face what he described as the largest military strike since World War II, officials from regional capitals once again\u00a0urged<\/a>\u00a0him to pause and pursue talks and deals instead. It is a pattern: just as Iran’s military capabilities are being crushed, external voices intervene to abort the process.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Iranian regime, which chants “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” has killed hundreds of Americans and Jews. It does not chant “Death to Qatar,” “Death to Turkey,” or “Death to Pakistan,” or systematically target their citizens the way it targets Americans and Jews. The Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies have, however, been targeting their neighbors’ civilian infrastructure. Perhaps to these countries, a “deal,” even a bad one, sounds as if it might free them of Iranian threats without any cost. Their security calculations have to be quite different from ours: Why not just sit back and let America and Israel do all the heavy lifting?<\/em><\/p>\n

The problem, of course, as the US has seen again and again, like Charlie Brown’s football, is that any deal signed with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would only postpone its threats to the oil and gas infrastructure of neighboring countries.<\/em><\/p>\n

A second, more strategic concern is whether Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan are interested in simply charming Trump into letting them wait him out. After he is safely out of office, they can then resume their Muslim Brotherhood-inspired expansion of Islam from better locations, such as right on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.<\/em><\/p>\n

Quite a few governments in the region have long histories of support for Islamist networks. Lavish promises of money, public statements of friendship and private promises of eventual participation in broader peace frameworks, such as the Abraham Accords, could serve as temporary assurances while the clock runs down.<\/em><\/p>\n

Oddly, Iran has attacked or threatened Gulf states. Yet these same states smile, continue friendly and diplomatic contacts, host Iranian officials, and facilitate negotiations. Why would countries under direct attack maintain casual dialogue and invite the aggressor’s leaders? The rational response would be to cut ties, demand accountability, or join efforts to neutralize the threat. It might be important at least to ask whether quiet understandings exist behind closed doors \u2014 assurances of future consideration if the current American pressure can be diluted or delayed.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the face of it, countries that decline to take a clear stand against a regime that relentlessly projects its power abroad and executes its own people on an industrial scale are not acting as pure partners of American interests, or even their own.<\/em><\/p>\n

Trump has made clear that he seeks genuine peace in the Middle East and broader participation in frameworks that normalize relations with Israel. Promises to join those frameworks are welcome \u2014 if they are real. The shower of “poison pill” conditions put forth, however, signals that they are not. They appear to function mainly as devices to postpone a decisive resolution of the Iranian threat. Regional media and political cultures in some of these countries still\u00a0carry<\/a>\u00a0strong anti-American and anti-Israel currents.<\/em><\/p>\n

The region’s states have practiced sophisticated diplomacy, layered alliances, and strategic ambiguity for centuries. Surface smiles and public pledges have often coexisted with different calculations conducted out of view. The United States correctly requires that policy rest on American interests alone, not on the preferences of mediators whose threat perception and long-term goals might well diverge from Washington’s.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Iranian regime’s core ideology \u2013 like that of the Muslim Brotherhood, followed by others in the region \u2014 includes the destruction of both America and Israel. No version of this ideology is compatible with American security.<\/em><\/p>\n

America’s clear national interest is the total surrender of the Iranian regime’s capacity to threaten anyone: its neighbors, Israel, the United States, and its own people. Any country that resists this outcome is, by definition, prioritizing other agendas. These might include jockeying for regional influence, Islamist or anti-Israel orientations, or a desire to preserve some weakened form of the Iranian regime until political circumstances in Washington change. America should no more want the IRGC continuing to rule Iran than it would have wanted the Nazi Party to continue ruling Germany.<\/em><\/p>\n

America must above all refuse to be drawn into the endless rope-a-dope games of the region. The first and overriding mission remains the one Trump first initiated: Unconditional surrender, as with Japan and Germany in World War II. Only then can one begin to talk about rebuilding, not before. America First means just that.<\/em><\/p>\n

Americans want a winner, not some fake deal that will be broken again before breakfast.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0egretnewseditor@gmail.com\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies have… been targeting their neighbors’ civilian infrastructure. Perhaps to these countries, a “deal,” even a bad one, sounds as if it might free them of Iranian threats without any cost. Their security calculations have to be quite different from ours: Why not just sit back and let […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47471,"featured_media":26617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[149,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-intel","category-top-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47471"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26618,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26616\/revisions\/26618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}