He expresses confidence in expanding the Abraham Accords if re-elected and shares his thoughts on US-Saudi relations and Saudi Arabia’s leadership. Trump also discusses his stance on Iran and his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In an exclusive interview with Al-Arabiya’s Nadia Bilbassy-Charters, aired on Sunday, Trump said: “If I were president, that war would have never started. You wouldn’t have all those dead people... (and) demolished cities and areas. (We) wouldn’t have had Oct. 7.”
The Republican presidential candidate also discussed the escalating conflict between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Israel, the Russia-Ukraine war and his desire to expand the Abrahams Accords if he wins the elections.
It was when Trump was US president that the Israel signed normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in what had become known as the Abraham Accords. With Trump as at the White House on September 15, 2020, the accord was by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of the UAE and Bahrain.
In their bilateral agreements, the UAE and Bahrain recognized Israel’s sovereignty, enabling the establishment of full diplomatic relations. Sudan and Morocco followed suit by signing their own agreements with Israel.
Recently, however, Bahrain’s parliament moved to end the country’s economic ties to Israel following Israel’s indiscriminate and unrelenting assault in Gaza, which has left at least 42,603 people dead and 99,795 injured as of Sunday October.
Disregarding growing calls for an end to hostilities, Israel has expanded the violence by attacking wide areas of Lebanon in its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah and Palestinian groups and their allies.
US President Biden’s failure to restrain Netanyahu has divided American Muslim voters on whether or not to support the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, in the November 5 US presidential election.
In a press conference on Sept. 27, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has said that he could get Israel to end the war, which he said must end “one way or another.”
In the Al-Arabiya interview on Sunday, Trump said that if he becomes president again he would work with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman to restore peace in the region.
