Islam Times - Trump has embraced Israeli and Saudi foreign policy

Islam Times - US President Donald Trump's attempts to bypass Congress and pursue American arms sales and other military support to Saudi Arabia is in line with Israel’s foreign policy, harming the interests of the US and Middle Eastern nations, says an American academic and analyst.

“The Trump administration, and the president in particular, appears to have embraced a Zionist foreign policy, which has led many to infer that he is a puppet of [ Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu,” said James Fetzer, a retired professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota.

“The Trump administration has lost its way and is betraying the trust of the American people with regard to its promises in relation to foreign policy,” Fetzer said.

Members of the US Congress, including Democrats and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, are preparing legislation seeking to block his plan for $8 billion in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

US lawmakers have been blocking sales of offensive military equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for months, claiming to be angry about the massive civilian deaths from their war against Yemen, as well as the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

Declaring a national emergency because of tensions with Iran, the Trump administration informed Congress on May 24 that it was going ahead with the 22 military deals, circumventing a long-standing procedure for lawmakers to review major weapons sales.

The range of weapons approved for sale by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo included offensive military products like mortars, precision-guided munitions and fighter jet engines, some of which would take many months to be produced and shipped, which lawmakers said contradicted the Trump administration’s claim that it was addressing an emergency.

The US has been unreservedly supporting a 2015-present Saudi-led war against Yemen that seeks to bring back the impoverished country’s former Riyadh-backed officials. The American patronage has featured aerial refueling, which the US only stopped earlier in the year after the Saudi-led coalition grew independent of it, as well as logistical and commando support.

Tens of thousands have died since the onset of the war, and the entire Yemen has been pushed close to the edge of outright famine.