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Undated:
The Middle East[note
1] is a
transcontinental
region
centered on
Western Asia,
Turkey (both Asian and
European),
and Egypt (which
is mostly in
North
Africa). The corresponding adjective is Middle Eastern and the
derived noun is Middle Easterner. The term has come into wider usage as a
replacement of the term
Near East
(as opposed to the
Far East)
beginning in the early 20th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East
Undated: The Arab Spring also
referred to as Arab Revolutions,
was a
revolutionary wave of both violent and non-violent
demonstrations,
protests,
riots,
coups,
foreign interventions, and
civil wars
in
North Africa and the
Middle
East that began on 18 December 2010 in
Tunisia with
the
Tunisian Revolution.
The effects of the
Tunisian Revolution spread strongly to five other countries:
Libya,
Egypt,
Yemen,
Syria and
Bahrain,
where either the regime was toppled or major uprisings and social violence
occurred, including riots, civil wars or insurgencies. Sustained street
demonstrations took place in
Morocco,
Iraq,
Algeria,
Iranian Khuzestan,
Lebanon,
Jordan,
Kuwait,
Oman and
Sudan. Minor
protests occurred in
Djibouti,
Mauritania,
the
Palestinian National Authority,
Saudi
Arabia, and the Moroccan-controlled
Western Sahara.[1]
A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is
ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām ("the people want to bring down the
regime").[2]
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The wave of
initial revolutions and protests faded by mid-2012, as many Arab Spring
demonstrations were met with violent responses from authorities,[3][4][5]
as well as from pro-government militias and counter-demonstrators. These attacks
were answered with violence from protestors in some cases.[6][7][8]
Large-scale conflicts resulted—the
Syrian Civil War,[9][10]
Iraqi insurgency and the
following civil war,[11]
the
Egyptian Crisis, coup and subsequent unrest and insurgency,[12]
the
Libyan Civil War, and the
Yemeni Crisis and
following civil war.[13]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring
-- 2016 --
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September 7:
U.S. President Barack Obama's
administration has offered Saudi Arabia more than $115 billion in weapons, other
military equipment and training, the most of any U.S. administration in the
71-year U.S.-Saudi alliance, a report seen by Reuters has found. ...
the offers were made in 42 separate deals, and the
majority of the equipment has yet to be delivered.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudi-security-idUSKCN11D2JQ
-- 2017 --
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March 8: Trump is banking on a big tech investment (from
the Middle East)
Just weeks after being elected, President Trump met the Japanese billionaire
behind a huge new tech fund and was promised a big investment.
Now that fund is a step closer to reaching its target to raise $100 billion.
And most of its cash will come from the Middle East.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/08/technology/softbank-trump-tech-fund-saudi-uae/index.html?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion
April 13: The US military has dropped an enormous bomb in
Afghanistan
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/13/us-drops-largest-non-nuclear-bomb-ever-in-afghanistan.html
May 20: U.S. official says nearly $110
billion worth of military deals inked with Saudi Arabia
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-saudi-deals/u-s-official-says-nearly-110-billion-worth-of-military-deals-inked-with-saudi-arabia-idUSKCN18G0KU
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May 21:
President Donald Trump's speech Sunday will likely be met with skepticism
and frustration in the Muslim world where Trump gave his speech in Saudi
Arabia ... he ditched his hard-line rhetoric from the 2016 election campaign
and instead called Islam "one of the world's great faiths." According to
experts in the Middle East (Iran, Jordan, Lebanon) ... his sudden shift in
tone on Islam was unconvincing.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/21/politics/trump-islam-saudi-arabia-reaction/index.html
May 21: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates will donate a combined $100 million to a World Bank fund for women
entrepreneurs that was the brainchild of Ivanka Trump.
The announcement by World Bank President Jim Young Kim came during a visit to
Saudi Arabia by President Trump, who was accompanied by his wife, Melania,
daughter Ivanka and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/21/529417148/saudis-and-the-uae-will-donate-100-million-to-a-fund-inspired-by-ivanka-trump
-- 2018 --
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April 4: The US gets more from its
Mideast policy than Trump thinks
According to Trump, not only has the US lost thousands of soldiers -- and led a
war that caused the deaths of tens of thousands more -- for "nothing" but "death
and destruction." He is also willing to contract their services out as a
regional enforcer, putting more American lives at risk, if the Saudis pay up. To
many observers, these words would have been staggering.
[On Wednesday] it emerged that Trump had told his national security team the
previous day that he was willing to keep troops in Syria a little longer, a
senior administration official told CNN.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/04/middleeast/trump-mideast-npw-analysis-intl/index.html
April 4:
Trump
instructs military to begin planning for withdrawal from Syria
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-instructs-military-to-begin-planning-for-withdrawal-from-syria/2018/04/04/1039f420-3811-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.ed7ce58b36bb
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April 4:
Trump’s big
(non)decision on US troops in Syria, explained ... Trump could change his mind
in the future.
As the
Washington Post reports, Trump told military leaders on Tuesday to prepare
for a withdrawal from Syria, although he did not set an official return date.
But per
NBC News, Trump decided to allow the approximately 2,000 troops in Syria to
stay there until ISIS is defeated, even though he was unhappy about it.
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/4/17192656/trump-syria-troop-withdrawal
April 14:
A Trump Doctrine for the Middle East
The region has now been Trump-branded as “a troubled place”—and one America is
not particularly interested in helping.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/trump-syria-middle-east/558053/
May 1: At a campaign-style event in
Washington, Mich., President Donald Trump upped the ante on the costs of wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. When
running for president in 2016, Trump said America had spent $6 trillion on
its response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. In Michigan, he added another
trillion.
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"We have spent $7 trillion — trillion with a T — $7 trillion in the Middle
East," he told the crowd
April 28, 2018. "You know what we have for it? Nothing. Nothing."
We found that Trump inaccurately treated money that university researchers have
predicted will be spent decades in the future as if it were already spent.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/may/01/donald-trump/donald-trump-and-7-trillion-dollar-cost-war/
May 9: Iran deal: how Trump's actions could
flare violence in Middle East
US president’s decision to break with the Iran nuclear deal increases tensions
in a region already mired in myriad interwoven conflicts
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/09/iran-deal-how-trump-actions-could-flare-violence-in-middle-east
May 13: Is Trump throwing a match into the
Middle East tinderbox?
The one area in which any president has almost complete latitude is foreign
affairs. Lord save us.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptb-robinson-wapo-column-st-0517-story.html
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May 20: ... the Russians weren’t the only
foreign power trying to hook up with Donald Trump Jr. and give a boost to the
Trump campaign ahead of the 2016 election. The New York Times
reported on Saturday there was yet another secret Trump Tower meeting during
the campaign where the president’s son and aides met with shadowy foreigners
offering to help Make America Great Again. On August 3, 2016, instead of
Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton, an emissary for the crown princes of
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said the de facto rulers were eager to
help Trump win the White House, and the offer reportedly got an approving
response from Trump Jr. An Israeli expert in “social media manipulation” was
there too, and explained how his company could give the Trump campaign an
advantage. Both offers, if accepted, would have violated U.S. election laws, and
special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators have already been looking into
this and other subsequent meetings.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/understanding-the-new-trump-campaign-collusion-story.html
June 6: Trump vs. Iran: How the Qatar Crisis
Weakened the U.S. in the Middle East
The sheer lack of cooperation by the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council
already has seen the U.S. limit some military exercises and send Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo to the region
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/trump-vs-iran-how-the-qatar-crisis-weakened-the-u-s-in-the-mideast-1.6153190
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June 6: As Donald Trump hosts his inaugural
Iftar dinner as president on Wednesday to mark the holy month of Ramadan,
Muslims in the nation’s capital will hold a counter event just steps away from
the White House.
Leading Muslim groups in Washington who attended the [White House] event under
previous administrations said Trump’s continued targeting of Islam and its
followers made engagement with his administration a futile, if not impossible
task, given the president’s history of incendiary comments about Muslims.
“I wouldn’t anticipate that any credible mainstream American Muslim
organizations or leaders would be invited or agree to attend, given the
administration’s Islamophobic and white supremacist positions and policies,”
said Ibrahim Hooper, the spokesman for the Council on American Islamic
Relations.
https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/articles/2018/muslim-groups-will-be-absent-as-donald-trump-hosts
June 7:
With Little Evidence, Trump Claims Iran Has Curbed Activities in
Middle East
President Trump claimed that Iran is “no longer
looking” to Syria or Yemen since he withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.
Administration officials have said otherwise.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/us/politics/fact-check-trump-iran-curbed-activities.html
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June 7: A day before US President Donald
Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, one of his senior officials phoned
Saudi Arabia to ask the world’s largest oil exporter to help keep prices stable
if the decision disrupted supply.
Riyadh, Tehran’s arch rival, has long been a close Washington ally, but direct
pressure on a member of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
over oil policies is rare. Washington last pressed Saudi Arabia to increase
output in 2012.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180607-trump-requested-saudi-oil-support-before-iran-nuclear-decision-sources/
June 8: Sheldon Adelson: the casino mogul
driving Trump's Middle East policy
The Las Vegas billionaire gave Republicans $82m for the 2016 elections and his
views, notably staunch support for Netanyahu’s Israel, are now the official US
line
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/08/sheldon-adelson-trump-middle-east-policy
June 8: U.S. Says It Will Intensify
Counter-IS Fight In Afghanistan
https://www.wgbh.org/news/international-news/2018/06/08/us-says-it-will-intensify-counter-is-fight-in-afghanistan
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August 22:
Egypt, Saudi Arabia less optimistic of Trump’s ‘Deal of Century' to bring Middle
East peace
Even as the White House moves to unveil its’ “Deal of the Century” vision for
Middle East peace, it’s increasingly clear that Arab enthusiasm to partner with
President Donald Trump on a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement is faltering.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/08/22/enthusiasm-wanes-trumps-deal-century-middle-east-peace-deal/1047237002/
September
10: Trump Shutters the Palestinian Diplomatic Mission—and Middle East
Peace
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-shutters-the-palestinian-diplomatic-missionand-middle-east-peace
September
20: Trump blasts the Middle East for high oil prices — but the U.S.
is the world's top producer
President Donald Trump blasted Middle East oil producers on Twitter Thursday,
saying "they continue to push for higher and higher oil prices!" — but oil
prices are at current levels due to demand from the United States and the Trump
administration’s hard line on Iran, say petroleum market experts. What’s more,
with the U.S. now the top oil-producing country in the world, lower prices could
hurt the American companies — and workers — in the industry.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/trump-blasts-middle-east-high-oil-prices-u-s-world-n911496
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September
26: Trump: Two-state Middle East solution would work best
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45653921
September
29: Trump's Middle East policy takes a kicking at UN assembly
Foreign policy analysts say that Trump's clout has waned on global stage,
particularly regarding Middle East issues
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/unga-wrap-trumps-middle-east-policy-takes-kicking-219057433
October
23: Trump: Middle East is 'a nasty part of the world'
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/412817-trump-on-khashoggi-middle-east-is-a-nasty-part-of-the-world
October
23: Trump admits he has 'no proof' of 'Middle Easterners' in caravan,
'but there could very well be'
Trump was asked about why he is implying that "Middle Easterners" are
terrorists, and he responded by saying Customs and Border Patrol has intercepted
both "good" and "bad" people at the border from the Middle East.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-admits-proof-middle-easterners-caravan/story?id=58686056
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October 25: 'Tainted' Saudi prince ruins
Trump's Middle East plans: analysts
US policy to 'subcontract' Saudi Arabia to handle Iran in jeopardy after
evidence points to MBS role in Khashoggi death.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/saudi-prince-ruins-trump-middle-east-plans-analysts-181025061715223.html
November
20: Trump Bet the Whole Middle East on Khashoggi’s Alleged Murderer.
Now He’s Doubling Down.
The president put all his policy eggs in the basket of this pariah prince, and
it turns out they’re rotten. But, trying to save face, he decides to side with
MBS over the CIA.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-backs-khashoggis-alleged-murderer-saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman
November
28: Trump: Israel 'One Reason' for U.S. Troops to Remain in Middle
East
U.S. president says oil production becoming less of a reason to stay in the
region
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-israel-one-reason-for-u-s-troops-to-remain-in-middle-east-1.6697591
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November
28: Israel says Trump's Middle East peace plan to be rolled out in
early 2019
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-trumps-middle-east-peace-plan-completed-to-be-rolled-out-in-early-2019/
December
13:
Mueller reportedly has dirt on the Trump campaign's ties to the Middle East
https://theweek.com/speedreads/812587/mueller-reportedly-dirt-trump-campaigns-ties-middle-east
December
16: Turkey says Trump working on extraditing wanted cleric Gulen
Turkey has long sought the extradition of Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed
US exile for nearly two decades. A former ally of Erdogan, he is blamed by
Turkish authorities for the failed coup when rogue soldiers commandeered tanks
and helicopters, attacked parliament and shot unarmed civilians.
Gulen denies any involvement in the failed putsch. Trump said last month he was
not considering extraditing the preacher as part of efforts to ease Turkish
pressure on Saudi Arabia over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in
Istanbul.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181216-turkey-says-trump-working-on-extraditing-wanted-cleric-gulen/
-- 2019 --
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May 4:
The U.S. is sending the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike
Group and a bomber task force to the
Middle East in order "to send a
clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime," National Security
Adviser John Bolton announced Sunday night ... the deployment was in response to
"a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings" on the part of
Tehran ....
https://www.foxnews.com/world/iran-john-bolton-uss-abraham-lincoln-middle-east-israel-hamas
-- 2020 --
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