Trump Is All Talk On Iran

UANI Advisory Board Member Dennis Ross writes in Foreign Policy magazine: President Donald Trump may not have high favorability ratings in the United States, but anyone who has recently spent time in Israel or Saudi Arabia, as I have, can attest that he does among leaders in these Middle Eastern states. The great irony is that Trump has not yet established practical policies that match his words. Many wonder why President Trump isn’t privately warning Putin about the dangers of what the Iranians are doing, the risk of escalation as a result, and U.S. readiness to support the Israelis if a serious conflict between Israel and Iran or Hezbollah erupts in Syria and Lebanon? Wouldn’t serious U.S. warnings be more likely to have an effect on the Russians — and therefore the Iranians — than Israeli expressions of concern? And shouldn’t the Russians know that the risk of drawing the United States into such a conflict is high, even if neither country wants that? If the United States wants the Israelis and Saudis to feel like they are less on their own, and that they don’t need to preempt perceived threats, the Trump administration needs to understand the limits of rhetoric and symbolism — and the power of action.