President Trump said Tuesday that some countries in the Middle East “wouldn’t last a week” without U.S. protection, and that he wants them to pump money and troops to support American efforts in Syria.
Trump, speaking at a White House press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, did not identify specific nations, but context suggested he was addressing oil-rich absolute monarchies in the Arabian peninsula.
“Countries that are in the area, some of which are immensely wealthy, would not be there except for the United States, and to a lesser extent France,” Trump said.
“They wouldn’t be there except for the United States. They wouldn’t last a week. We are protecting them. They have to now step up and pay for what is happening,” he said.
Trump did not clarify whether the U.S. was protecting the countries from internal or external threats. Several Persian Gulf monarchies, including Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar, host major U.S. military bases.
Trump was addressing his desire to withdraw approximately 2,000 U.S. troops working in northern Syria with primarily Kurdish militia groups. He said that he would like to ensure that territory doesn’t change hands to benefit Iran.
“The United States is embarrassingly into the Middle East,” Trump added.
“I don’t take responsibility but I would be very embarrassed if I had to,” he continued. “When we want to fix a highway or we want to build schools and lots of other things — tunnels, bridges — they say, ‘Oh, let’s be careful with our money.’ And yet we’ve spend $7 trillion in the Middle East and we’ve got nothing for it, nothing — less than nothing, so far as I’m concerned.”
Referring to wealthy Arab countries, he said: “They will pay for it. We’ve spoken for them and they will pay for it. … And they will also put soldiers on the ground, which they are not doing, and we will in fact bring lots of people home.”
Many U.S.-allied Arab nations donated generously to Arab rebels now on the verge of defeat by Syrian President Bashar Assad. Trump ended a CIA program to assist these groups, in favor of increasing work with a Kurdish-led alliance focused primarily on fighting the Islamic State group.
Although the Iran-allied governments of Iraq and Syria already control contiguous territory between Iran and the Mediterranean Sea, Trump said Tuesday he would like that not to be the case.
“We will have a strong blockage to the Mediterranean, which to me is very important because if you don’t you have Iran going right to the Mediterranean, we aren’t going to have that,” he said.
