There are still questions at the agreement, Syrian sanctions after Trump Middle East trip

President Donald Trump finished the Middle East trip four days on Friday, traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

His first overseas journey in his term of office saw the US securing more than $ 2 trillion in an investment agreement in the Bay area, according to the White House, and Trump announced that he would move to lift US sanctions in Syria.

Trump also said during the trip that he believed that the US and Tehran “were closer to possible agreement” on the Iran nuclear program and asked Qatar to use its influence to persuade Iran’s leadership to reach an agreement with the US to turn back its progressing nuclear program quickly.

The “creating a number of vacancies and opportunities that are quite interesting,” Michael Hanna, director of the US program for the International Crisis Group, told ABC News.

“It seems that maybe the region, led by Bay, can have several very substantive and important inputs in forming US policies for a better direction,” he said, as far as a military conflict with Iran and Houthi and involved with Syria to stabilize the transition after the Assad family was expelled from power.

But, he said, “One of the things that has become a big problem for Trump, traditionally, is the implementation and follow -up.”

During Trump’s trip, the US gained more than $ 200 billion in a commercial agreement with the United Arab Emirates, more than $ 243.5 billion in economic agreements and economic exchange agreements of $ 1.2 trillion with Qatar, and $ 600 billion from Saudi Arabia to invest in the US, the White House said. Some agreements focus on AI, energy and defense infrastructure.

“Increasingly, he believes, as a former developer of real estate and businessman, who encourages the expansion of the interest of the American business must be the main business of the American government, so to speak. And he goes there with that mission,” Manochehr Dorraj, a professor of political science in Texas Christian University, told ABC News. “So far is the principle of guidelines, he took a big step to achieve that goal.”

But, he noted, “Satan is always in the details.”

“We will see how it will run in practice,” Dorraj said.

Among the main announcements, Trump said during the main speech in Riyadh on Tuesday that he would order a termination of US sanctions against Syria, which had been designated as a sponsor of terrorism by the US government since 1979, “to give them the opportunity to get great.”

After the announcement, there were “many big question marks” in terms of implementation and follow -up, said Hanna.

“Some things he can do with a pen stroke,” said Hanna, while note that it is not clear how the administration or congress will react.

“He is quite clear that this is happening, so I will sharply watch it first, [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio is dealing with this, because he can lift some of these sanctions with a pen stroke, “Hanna said.” There are other big problems with sectoral sanctions and Emperor’s law. “

“There are many things to decompose,” he said.

Asked about the time line to raise sanctions during a statement in Turkey on Thursday, Rubio said, “I was with the President when he made the decision to do this and put it in his speech. So we have done the preparation work in that matter.”

He said Trump intended to use the authority under the Emperor’s law, which had to be updated every 180 days.

“In the end, if we make sufficient progress, we want to see the law revoked because you will struggle to find people to invest in a country when in six months, sanctions can return,” Rubio said. “We haven’t arrived yet. That is premature. I think we want to start with the initial neglect, which will allow foreign partners who want to flow in help to start doing it without carrying out the risk of sanctions. I think when we make progress, hopefully we will soon be in a position, or one day, to go to the congress and ask them to permanently delete sanctions.”

When negotiations were taking place on Iran’s nuclear program, Hanna noted technical and diplomatic efforts that entered negotiations on the 2015 Iranian Nuclear Action Plan agreed by the Obama government, but Trump withdrew the US from three years later.

“Negotiations are very technical, very detailed, very long. And that’s not the way Trump likes to operate, or [U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve] Witkoff, right? They are not the details. They are a big picture, the part that makes an agreement, “he said.

He added, “But for something like a nuclear agreement with Iran, there is a lot that is needed to make a real agreement, and it requires a lot of technical and diplomatic capacity. And if we get to that stage, it will really be a pretty big challenge – even if everyone gets the same page – to change the agreement on the principle into an agreement on paper.”

Dorraj said Trump’s transactional foreign policy could be an asset in the short term but “The disadvantage is that there is no long -term strategy.”

“This is a quick initiative,” he said. “The pragmatic part of it – ‘Let’s see what works. Let’s see what will make us to the agreement we want. We will learn when we continue, and we will adopt and adjust as needed.’ Okay, it can be an asset.