Kissinger on Trump

I don’t recall Henry Kissinger commenting on the Trump administration’s foreign policy during the Trump administration, but recently Dr. K declared the Abraham Accords to be a major diplomatic achievement.

From Zero Hedge, via Maggie’s Farm:

Kissinger likened Donald Trump’s diplomatic achievements in the Middle East to Nixon’s opening of China in 1972, and warned that the Biden administration should continue the tough Trump policy on Iran.

He also called the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords a breakthrough in Arab-Israeli relations.

“I think that one of the great successes of the previous administration was that they had lined up, that they had achieved two things in the Middle East,” Kissinger said.

“One, to separate the Palestinian problem from all of the other problems so that it did not become a veto over everything else.

He added:

“Secondly, of lining up the Sunni states in actual or potential combination against the Shiite states, which is Iran, that was developing a capacity to threaten them. I think that this was a brilliant concept. We were just at the beginning of it.”

The Abraham Accords, brokered by former President Donald Trump, established new cooperation and normalization between the United States, Israel, and Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sudan, and Morocco.

“A brilliant concept….” Would you believe that a pillar of the foreign policy establishment could use such terms in reference to the Trump administration. Kissinger proceeded to compare it to Nixon’s opening to China. 

“This was a brilliant concept. We were just at the beginning of it. It was like the beginning of the China opening. The evolution of it was just beginning,” Kissinger said.

The former secretary of state expressed his wish that the Biden administration continue the current policy. As you know, the Biden administration is working hard to turn back the clock, in a perfectly reactionary fashion, by trying to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, by providing financial support for the ayatollahs and for removing the Iran-backed Houthi rebels from the terrorism list. Let’s not ignore the fact that the Biden foreign policy team contains a number of individuals who count themselves as pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists.

Kissinger urged the Biden administration to uphold the current policy in the Middle East cemented by Trump.

“We should not give up the pressures that exist on Iran until we know where they are heading,” Kissinger said.

“If we break out the Iranian issue from the overall Middle Eastern issue, we run the risk of losing the two achievements, namely of separating the Palestinian issue, which removes it as a veto over everything else, and the Sunni cooperation with Israel, which is unique in its openness.”

As of today, the Biden, or should we say the Harris administration is following a different course.