EVOLUTION OF U.S FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS THE GULF DURING TRUMP'S PRESIDENCY (2016 - 2020): IMPLICATIONS FOR THE IRAN-GCC RELATIONS

Abstract

The U.S and Arab Gulf States' relations had been strong since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and this had a negative impact on the GCC Iranian relations. However, by the mid-2010s, the GCC - U.S. relations witnessed a serious rift due to the Arab Monarchies of the Gulf not supporting the nuclear deal during the Obama presidency (2009-2017) (Roberts, 2015). Subsequently, the GCC States hoped that President Trump (2016- 2020) coming to office in 2016 would be stricter with Iran and limit its power in the region. Nevertheless, the Trump administration's decisions such as pulling out of the Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) (CBC, 2020), demanding that Saudi Arabia pays the U.S for protecting it (Boubouche, 2017), tweeting against Qatar in the beginning of the blockade (Karl, 2017), and the assassination of the Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani in January of 2020 (Gathman, 2020) have increased tension in the Gulf region. This thesis argues that the Arab Gulf States were pushed to be more active in mediation and to increase cooperation with Iran in an attempt to bring stability. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the changes in the GCC -Iran relations during the Trump era to understand the potential trajectories of their development in the future.