Trump adviser: He might rethink Israel, Iran plans

New York Post – by Yaron Steinbuch

President-elect Donald Trump might not move too quickly to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and rip up the Iran nuclear agreement — two actions he promised during his campaign, a top adviser said.

Trump will instead focus on brokering an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, foreign policy adviser Walid Phares said.  

Israeli leaders have pushed Trump to overturn decades of foreign policy by recognizing Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s capital and moving the embassy.

“Many prime ministers of Israel have that close to their heart. Many presidents of the US have committed to do that, and he [Trump] said as well he would do that,” Phares told the BBC.

“But he would do that in consensus,” he added as a caveat, without elaborating.

Another adviser was more committal.

“It was a campaign promise and there is every intention to keep it,” Trump’s Mideast adviser David Friedman told the Jerusalem Post. “We are going to see a very different relationship between America and Israel in a positive way.”

Immediately after Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat tweeted: “In your term as President I am confident that you will continue to empower our city by reaffirming its sovereignty and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.”

In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which mandated that the embassy be moved by May 31, 1999.

But President Obama and his two predecessors — Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — claimed a presidential waiver to avoid implementing the move due to national security interests.

Israeli right-wingers have hailed Trump’s win as a chance to consolidate control over the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem.

Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem would undercut Palestinian claims to the eastern part of the city.

Phares also addressed the landmark 2014 nuclear deal, which he said would be renegotiated with Tehran.

Trump has said he would make it his “No. 1 priority” to rip up the “disastrous” deal.

“Ripping up is maybe a too strong of word — he’s gonna take that agreement, it’s been done before in international context, and then review it,” Phares told the BBC.

“He will take the agreement, review it, send it to Congress, demand from the Iranians restore a few issues or change a few issues, and there will be a discussion,” he added.

“It could be a tense discussion but the agreement as is right now — $750 billion to the Iranian regime without receiving much in return and increasing intervention in four countries — that is not going to be accepted by the Trump administration.”

In exchange for an easing of sanctions, the agreement requires Iran to curb its nuclear enrichment activities.

Meanwhile, Trump on Friday pledged to tackle the moribund peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, Agence France-Presse reported.

“It won’t be impossible for him to broker a deal between Israelis and Palestinians — at least he is going to go in that direction and not waste eight years, or at least four years from now, not doing anything for Palestinians and Israelis,” Phares said.

In a message published by the Israel Hayom newspaper, Trump said: “I believe that my administration can play a significant role in helping the parties to achieve a just, lasting peace.”

He stressed that any peace accord “must be negotiated between the parties themselves, and not imposed on them by others.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that “what matters to us is what Mr. Trump will say once he enters the White House.”

https://nypost.com/2016/11/11/trump-adviser-he-might-re-think-israel-iran-plans/