President Donald Trump Returned to the office and did not promise new wars. So far he has kept that promise. But he also confused a lot of Washington – and many of the American allies – by a series of fast, unexpected movements about the Midden -East.
Trump has been reopened in just a few months Backchans with Iran, Then turned around and threatened his regime with collapse. He kept Israel on arm length – skipping on his regional tour – before he signals support again. He has lifted the American sanctions against the Islamic leader of Syria, a figure that is treated for a long time as inviolable in Washington. And he made the headlines by organizing the best general of Pakistan in the White House, even when India publicly objected.
For those who keep a close eye on, it was difficult to determine a clear doctrine. Critics see improvisation – sometimes even contradiction. But step back and a pattern starts to arise. It is not about ideology, promotion of democracy or traditional alliances. It’s about access. Geography. Trade.
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More specifically, it can be about restarting a long-set infrastructure project that is intended to bypass China and to reduce the United States to the center of a strategic economic corridor that extends from India to Europe.
This image shows a plane that launches from the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea in front of air strikes in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 15. (US Navy via AP)
The project will be the India – Middle East – European Corridor, or imec. Most Americans have never heard of it. It was launched in 2023 at the G20 top in New Delhi, as a joint initiative under the US, India, Saudi -Arabia, the VAE and the European Union. His goal? To build a modern infrastructure connection that connects South – Asia with Europe – without passing Chinese territory or to rely on Chinese capital.
The vision of Imec is daring but simple: Indian goods would travel through the wave and ports through the Golf, in Israel and through the European markets. Along the way, the corridor would not only connect trade routes, but also from energy pipelines, digital cables and logistics hubs. It would be the first serious alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative – a way for the US and its partners to build influence without boots on site.
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But before the construction could start, war broke out in Gaza.
The Hamas -attacks in October 2023 And Israel’s military answer sent the region in a crisis. Standardization interviews between Saudi Aarabia and Israel fell apart. The Red Sea became a war zone for shipping. And Gulf Capital Flows Pauxed. The corridor and the wider idea to use infrastructure to bind the region – was quietly suspended.
That is the background for the current movements of Trump. Individually, they seem spread. All in all, they correspond to the logic of cleaning up obstacles for infrastructure. Trump may not attract cards in the situation room. But his instincts – for leverage, dealing and unpredictability – remove the roadblocks that imec stopped in the first place.
His approach to Iran Is a good example. Backchans were reopened on the nuclear front in April. In May, a Yemen weapons were mediated – reducing attacks on wave shipment. In June, after Israeli in Iran, Trump escalated rhetorically and called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender”. That combination of involvement and pressure may sound erratic. But it reflects the approach that a diplomatic path with Noord -Korea has released: softening the edges and then exerting public pressure.
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In the meantime, Trump’s temporary distance from Israel is more difficult to miss. He skipped it to his regional tour and avoided to tune into the continuous hard approach of Prime Minister Netanyahu of Gaza. Instead, he praised Qatar-a American military partner and a calm mediator in the Gaza interviews and gave support for support for reconstruction plans. The message: If Israel refuses to enter into regional stabilization, it does not have the card under control.
Trump also made the unexpected decision to lift American sanctions against the new leader of Syria, President Ahmad al-Sharaa-a figure with a past in Islamic groups, which now leads a transitional government, supported by the VAE. Critics saw the movement as legitimizing extremism. But in practice the regional financing and access to transit corridors that once blocked by American policy.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani welcomes President Donald Trump during an official hospitable ceremony in the Amiri Diwan in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday 14 May 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Even the outreach to Pakistan – who made India angry – fits a wider infrastructure lens. Pakistan borders Iran, influences the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and maintains ties with Gulf soldiers. Welidable Pakistan’s military chef Was less about loyalty and more about leverage. Geography often surpasses alliances in gang politics.
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None of this means that Trump has a master plan. There is no confirmed strategic memo that links these movements to IMEC. And the region remains volatile. Iran’s internal stability is far from guaranteed. The Gaza conflict could recover. Saudi and Qatari interests do not always come to each other. But there is a growing logic under diplomacy: de-escalate just enough conflict to re-make capital flow and to invest and corridors.
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That logic may not be ideologically pure. It is certainly not about spreading democracy. But it reflects a real shift in the foreign policy of the US. Call the infrastructure first Geopolitics – Where trade routes, ports and pipelines are more than treaties and tops.
To be clear: the United States is not the only player who thinks in this way. The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative has promoted the same model for more than ten years. Turkey, Iran and Russia are also investigating new logistics and energy courses. But what IMEC distinguishes and that makes Trump’s recent movements remarkable that it offers an opening for the US to compete without large-scale military implementations or decades of auxiliary packages.
Even the outreach to Pakistan – who made India angry – fits a wider infrastructure lens. Pakistan borders Iran, influences the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and maintains ties with Gulf soldiers.
Despite all his unpredictability, Trump has always had a feeling for economic leverage. That is perhaps what we see here: less a doctrine than a direction. Less about large visions and more about unlocking chokepoints.
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There is no guarantee that it will work. The region could switch on a cent. And the corridor can, as it now, is a partially built concept that waits for political will. But Trump’s movements suggest that he is trying to build up the conditions to restart – not by talking about peace, but by making peace a condition for investment.
In a region that has long been formed by wars on ideology and territory, that can be its own type of strategy.
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