Ramadhan al-Saadi, AlArabiya.net, 11 November 2016 – Walid Phares, one of US President-Elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy advisers, has confirmed that the upcoming administration plans on creating a coalition with the GCC, Jordan, and Egypt in counter-terrorism efforts.
Phares also confirmed during an interview with the BBC that Trump will plan on recalling the Iran nuclear deal and re-discussing it in congress before resubmitting it to EU partners, clarifying that the next US administration will demand key changes to the agreement.
During the campaign, Trump said the Iran deal was one of the worst agreements ever negotiated. In a USA Today op-ed in September of 2015 Trump said, “When I am elected president, I will renegotiate with Iran.”
When challenged by the BBC that a coalition between Gulf Arab countries and the US already exists, Phares responded: “We wished it were the case. A lot of Arab diplomats have been telling us that they hoped to have had more active participation with the US in fighting terrorism but the Obama administration has opposed them saying that they ‘did not want them in Iraq and Syria’ in order for the Iran nuclear deal to stick”.
