US increasing security at ME diplomatic posts, amid Trump policy shifts
Days after US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and ahead of the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem al-Quds, the US says it is ramping up security at diplomatic posts in the Middle East.
CNN reports that the US State Department has been working on increasing security at posts around the Middle East region for weeks, amid concerns about the consequences of the Trump administration's policy shifts in the Middle East.
Trump’s policy shifts in the Middle East and his recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as the Israeli capital has made a turbulent region potentially all the more volatile.
This week Trump announced his decision to withdraw the United States from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and re-impose sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
"I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal," Trump said Tuesday in a televised address from the White House. “This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.”
And in another contentious decision, on Monday this coming week, the Trump administration will officially move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds, a decision made by Trump earlier this year that broke with decades of international norms in dealing with Israel's disputed claim to the holy city as its capital.
Many countries have reportedly declined to attend the US embassy relocation ceremony in the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds in a show of anger at President Donald Trump’s recognition of the city as Israel’s "capital."
‘US throwing another can of gasoline on fire’
"In this highly tense situation, we've now poured gasoline on the fire by removing the Iran nuclear deal, which provided some semblance of constraint," CNN quoted Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who now directs the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, saying.
Riedel added that Trump is now "only a few days away from throwing another can of gasoline on the fire by moving the embassy to Jerusalem. It's very dangerous. It's sending the signal that the United States wants to confront Iran, and that's a signal that the Israelis and the Saudis are all too eager to hear."
Riedel noted that the US was no longer playing the role it has traditionally occupied in the Middle East.
"Normally in this scenario," he said, "the United States would be the leading voice counseling restraint, but that's no longer the case."
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