Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears with Mari Bartiromo to discuss the Iranian nuclear agreement and specifically President Trump’s call for revised security terms.
For those who travel through the deep geopolitical grass, this interview is particularly important as Netanyahu outlines the ‘why now’ aspect.  Note specifically how the Prime Minister frames the economic leverage strategy we have discussed –Backstory Here– and how the regional allies President Trump has assembled are all in concert with the larger objectives.  It’s actually a little surprising to see Netanyahu ‘out’ the Big picture.

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In the background, and as a direct counter to how President Trump is using the Trump Doctrine of economic leverage, you will note that China, Russia, Iran and other state adversaries are creating a financial network to avoid their exposure to U.S. trade currency leverage.  Their strategic action is what’s driving up the value of crypto-currencies like Bitcoin as tools to avoid Trump’s leverage and Secretary Mnuchin’s aligned economic policy influence.
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Today Secretary of State Rex Tillerson highlighted events over the past six months.  T-Rex takes another stroll around the globe discussing regional policy, specific state policy, and ongoing challenges.  Secretary Tillerson then takes questions from the media at the conclusion of his remarks.
Very informative. Very well worth watching (T-Rex Begins at 03:40):

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[*Note* We’ll capture and share transcript as soon as possible.]
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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been keeping an exhaustive schedule for the past week and especially in the past few days.  In the ongoing diplomatic effort against mid-east terror networks, the GCC/Trump coalition have kept up pressure against Qatar.
Kuwait is acting as the primary mediator between Qatar and the rest of the Gulf States; T-Rex conducted three days of shuttle diplomacy in an effort to assist and reassert the position of the Trump administration.  Tillerson traveled to Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and back to Qatar with extensive meetings within each nation.
It would take a bazillion words to explain all the nuances, shifts, agreements and diplomatic ongoing efforts.  However, to keep it simple we boiled it down to the current, most consequential, outcome within this graphic:
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(VIA STATE DEPT) Qatar has begun its careful review and consideration of a series of requests presented by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

While some of the elements will be very difficult for Qatar to meet, there are significant areas which provide a basis for ongoing dialogue leading to resolution.

A productive next step would be for each of the countries to sit together and continue this conversation. We believe our allies and partners are stronger when they are working together towards one goal which we all agree is stopping terrorism and countering extremism.

Each country involved has something to contribute to that effort. A lowering of rhetoric would also help ease the tension. The United States will continue to stay in close contact with all parties and will continue to support the mediation efforts of the Emir of Kuwait.

~ U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

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“The core allies were certainly encouraged by the clear narrative by President Trump in Riyadh, and thus decided to address the Qatar-Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] problem. The speech changed the narrative.” ~ Walid Phares

According to a Fox News Exclusive report, the President Trump administration is considering a Camp-David style Arab peace summit.   Those who have followed the administration’s structural activity all year will see this as a natural progression of events within the alliance formed by President Trump and the Mid-East coalition.

The four major allies within the growing alliance, Egypt, Saudi, UAE and Bahrain, as well as other moderates supportive of the larger objectives to restore stability, are currently engaged in a campaign to change the outlook of Qatar and stop their support for the Muslim Brotherhood.  A peace summit around their united efforts, with the support of President Trump, would follow a logical path.

The media will go bananas at the thought of such a consequential accomplishment.

(Via Fox News) President Trump is considering calling a Camp David-style summit to address growing tensions among long-established U.S. allies in the Arab world and renew his call for those nations to confront the “crisis of Islamic extremism,” Fox News has learned.

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The latest development, in the ongoing Arab state GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) initiative to stem the destabilizing behavior of Qatar, is a list of demands presented to Qatar. If you have followed the regional issues for the past few years you’ll quickly identify how each of the demands cuts to the core of the destabilizing issues.

Included in the demands:  ♦Shut down al-Jazeera, ♦stop cooperating with Iran and ♦expel Turkish military provocateurs (Erdogan).  The binding thread that connects each of these demands is the effort to stop Qatar from supporting/assisting the Muslim Brotherhood.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kuwait has given Qatar a list of demands from Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations that includes shutting down Al-Jazeera and cutting diplomatic ties to Iran.

That’s according to a list obtained by The Associated Press from one of the countries involved in the dispute. The document says Qatar has 10 days to comply with all demands.

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Jordan’s King Abdullah III becomes the latest Arab leader to denounce Qatar and join the growing diplomatic boycott of the Islamic extremist sympathizers.

Jordan will downgrade its diplomatic representation with Qatar, it said on Tuesday, standing with several Arab powers that have cut ties with the tiny Gulf state.

The decision was made after Amman examined the “cause of the crisis” between Doha and the other Arab states, government spokesman Mohammed al Momani said.

He added that Jordan also revoked the TV license for Al Jazeera, Qatar’s influential state-owned satellite channel.  (link)

What we are seeing unfold is a seismic shift in Arab sentiment away from the extremist Muslim Brotherhood.  This action is 100% the result of months of careful diplomacy between the Trump Administration and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council in a modern coalition to confront political Islam and the extremist messaging that results in terrorism.

The U.S. and Western Media never reported on the frequency of high diplomatic engagement by President Trump in the lead-up to his historic visit to Saudi Arabia.  It is specifically because of this willfully blind and intentional void in prior diplomatic understanding that most media are missing how this approach was constructed.

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There’s a history needed for context here.  But first, here’s the latest developments in order of their occurrence.

♦ 6:00am Bahrain’s Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement early Monday saying it would withdraw its diplomatic mission from the Qatari capital of Doha within 48 hours and that all Qatari diplomats should leave Bahrain within the same period.

The ministry’s statement said Qatari citizens needed to leave Bahrain within two weeks and that air and sea traffic between the two countries would be halted. It wasn’t immediately clear how that would affect Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers.

Bahrain blamed Qatar’s “media incitement, support for armed terrorist activities and funding linked to Iranian groups to carry out sabotage and spreading chaos in Bahrain” for its decision.

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The pageantry and scale of the royal reception toward President Trump and the U.S. is reflective of much more than a singular presidential visit to a nation and region of geo-strategic importance.

The word “reset” is frequent amid media reporting of the Saudi trip but few people have followed the recent regional history to thoroughly understand what exactly is being reset.

~ President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman – Joint Statement.

President Trump is being recognized and respected by the regional Arab coalition for his specific approach and outward worldview which is based on eye-to-eye diplomacy.

Through the contacts, discussions, emissary meetings and individual diplomatic engagements over the past six months, the Arab region members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -and specifically Saudi Arabia- are overjoyed to find a fresh U.S. perspective based on mutual respect. (more…)

In January of 2015 Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi began a journey of peace by asking the holiest and most influential Islamic Scholars in the Arab world to join him in stepping away from the noise of extremist voices and engaging in long-term introspective review of their Islamic faith.  President al-Sisi called for a religious revolution to focus Islam toward a future of peace.  The engaged Dar al-Iftaa scholarly audience erupted in applause.

President al-Sisi stood up, resolute, spoke of large truths with bold leadership, and took great risk upon himself.  After the speech a coalition of like-minded voices began to grow in number and consequence.   That moment became the pebble dropped in the shoe of the Arab leadership of consequence – the emphasis shifted toward peace.

That influential speech, and more importantly the leadership of all joining member states, including the praise of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia before his untimely death, paved the way forward toward this upcoming weekend.   King Abdullah’s successor, his brother King Salman, is now positioned to put his own footprint in history.

All of the necessary elements, many of them taking years to organize, are aligned in common purpose for this specific moment in time.

More than a dozen heads of state from Arab and Islamic nations have been invited by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to attend the conference with President Trump including: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (Egypt), King Abdullah III (Jordan), Muhammad Fuad Masum (Iraq), Mamnoon Hussain (Pakistan) and all six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE).  All are expected to be in attendance.

We are living in one of those rare moments when we are fortunate enough to see the building blocks of historic enterprise being erected while we watch.  The results of these next several days will shape how our children view the landscape of the middle east in all the years to come.

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