Egypt Pulls Out of Trump’s Proposed ‘Arab NATO’

Officials doubt seriousness of the proposal

President Trump’s push to create an “Arab NATO” with the express purposes of fighting Iran seems to be crumbling, as Egypt has withdrawn from talks on the matter and will not be joining any endeavor, if one ever exists.

Egyptian officials openly doubted the seriousness of the proposal, saying there is still no blueprint for it, and they are concerned it will just increase tensions with Iran without accomplishing anything. This is, if nothing else, an admission from Egypt that increased tensions with Iran are not in and of themselves an accomplishment.

With some of the other involved nations say they’ll press Egypt to return, it is doubtful this will work, even if plans ever emerge for the group. In the meantime, it’s mostly just the GCC members and Jordan.

Other officials expressed doubts about how committed even the US is to its own plan, and wondered if the next president after Trump would just scrap the idea outright. That seems to be an open question, and the White House even now seems not to be pushing the scheme as hard as they once were.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.