Quite chaotic and contradictory decisions of the American president in the foreign policy sphere caused a lot of hopes and disappointments, writes Le Monde.
Syria "The regime of Bashar Assad hoped if not for a sharp change in the alliance with the US in his favor, then at least for benevolent neutrality. The desire of Trump candidate to establish a big alliance against jihadist terrorism with Russia Vladimir Putin and his position against any bombing of Syria in August 2013, after a chemical attack in the suburbs of Damascus, allowed to hope for such a restructuring, "reads the article.
"The statements of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US representative to the United Nations Nikki Haley made in late March, according to which Bashar Assad's departure was no longer a priority of US diplomacy, allowed Damascus to think that everything is going according to plan. In addition, the Syrian regime did not protest against the publication of two anti-immigration decrees temporarily prohibiting the entry into the United States for Syrian citizens and indefinitely for Syrian refugees, "journalists note..
"However, the bombing with the use of chemical weapons in the town of Khan-Sheikhun, controlled by the insurgents, committed on April 4 (79 killed), all changed. Two days later, President Trump ordered the punitive air strikes at the Shayrat airbase, from where the plane that attacked Khan-Sheikhun flew, "reads the article.
"Since then, Damascus has returned to its familiar anti-American rhetoric. On April 13, Bashar Assad stated that the chemical attack in Khan-Sheikhun was "fabricated" by the US in order to find a convenient excuse for overthrowing it. "We have a feeling that the West, and mainly the US, is an accomplice of terrorists and that he invented the entire story so that it served as a pretext for an attack" on the night of April 6-7. In the final analysis, the Syrian-Russian-Iranian alliance has now become stronger, in the face of what is perceived as a threat from Trump, "argue journalists.
Russia "For Russia, hopes for the restoration of relations with the United States in connection with the coming to power of Donald Trump quickly disappeared. During the election campaign, the Democrats accused the businessman of being a "puppet of the Kremlin", and exposed the Kremlin's interference in the campaign, in particular through hackers, in order to facilitate the election of the Republican candidate, "reads the article.
"However, relations have not improved much, and even worsened, as Russian President Vladimir Putin regretted," comment journalists. - As his American colleague hit the whole world with his decision to strike air strikes on Syria on the night of April 6-7, after a chemical attack attributed to the regime of Bashar Assad committed against the town of Khan-Sheikhun, which resulted in dozens of victims. "The American administration is changing, the methods remain the same," said Igor Konashenkov, head of the press service and information department of the Russian Defense Ministry. - Strikes against Syria have been prepared for a long time ". Nevertheless, the gap is still far away, even if in Moscow the image of the American president, a denier of traditions accused by critics for his relations with Russia - which could not but please her - was replaced by the image of the head of state "taken in hand" by his own Administration. "By its attack on the airbase in Syria, the administration of US President Donald Trump has proved its extreme dependence on the opinion of the Washington establishment," Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev sharply stated.
Great Britain "By highlighting its" special relationship "with Washington, Theresa May managed to boast that on January 27 she was the first leader to be accepted by President Trump in the White House,. "But it was especially important for May to take the first step with the goal of concluding with the US a free trade agreement that she needed to compensate for the break with the EU. By positioning herself as a loyal friend, she even did without condemning Trump's decision to close American borders before the descendants of the seven Muslim countries. Her foreign minister Boris Johnson even canceled on April 9 a planned visit to Moscow in order to leave Washington at the forefront of the Syrian crisis. Nevertheless, nothing says that May was rewarded for such care. After Donald Trump in January promised to quickly sign a trade agreement with London, in March he decided to give priority to the EU ".
Germany "Is it possible for Ivanka Trump to remove the obstacles between her father and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel? Many observers commented after the media-sponsored visit to Berlin on Tuesday, April 25, the daughter of the American president, who took part in the G-20 summit at the invitation of Merkel ", - report journalists.
"During the election campaign, the Republican candidate blamed Merkel for" ruining "Germany with her migration policy. The first meeting in March in Washington was not very warm. It was indicated the divergence of positions in many dossiers (international trade, immigration), - reads the article. - Outwardly, Mrs. Chancellor tries to establish good relations with the American president. In her typical responsible approach, she relies on perseverance. And Ivanka.
NATO "NATO is an" obsolete "legacy of the Cold War, as Donald Trump expressed during the election campaign. Then he sketched out a "new era of relations" with Moscow and threatened: if the Europeans do not invest more in their own security, they will not be able to rely on Washington's help for ever, automatically, "remind journalists.
"Now NATO allies are waiting for clarification on the issue that the US government has been insistently raising and still unclear in their eyes: what does Trump want to say, recalling the need for increased commitments of the North Atlantic alliance in the fight against Islamic terrorism?" The likely added value of NATO in this area is Insignificant. With the exception of the mention of direct commitments in Syria, which certainly will cause the worries of a good part of Europeans, at the thought of two key players in this conflict, such as Iran and Russia, "reads the article.