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Thursday, 2 February 2017

Trump is in with regional leaders, authoritarians

The press (in the US in particular) is spilling barrels of virtual ink expressing its unhappiness that US President Donald Trump is palling around with Arab leaders and “authoritarians” in general. Trump looks like he’s going to be great friends with President Abdelfattah El Sisi since he seems “fine with harsh repression in Egypt,” activist Sharif Abdel Kouddous writes in a drawn-out piece for The Nation that really fails to draw the connection between point and subject matter.

The New York Times’ Rod Nordland also seems to think that The Donald is “in” with the world’s authoritarian regimes despite their shortcomings in the human rights domain, naming Egypt, Turkey, and Trump’s bromance with Russian President Vladimir Putin as some examples. Meanwhile, Thomas Seibart writes for Arab Weekly that Trump is cozying up to Israel and Egypt as his top allies in the Middle East in hopes of establishing strong partnerships to counterbalance Iran’s influence in the region.

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