House testimony from a Treasury Department official during the 2015 Iran nuclear negotiations shows that U.S. priorities and nonmilitary approaches toward Iran remain the same in 2026.
Under the deal between Iran and five world powers, Iran agreed to dismantle much of its nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars of sanctions relief. Israel called the deal too lenient. On May 8, 2018, President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA, calling it one of the “worst and most one-sided” agreements in U.S. history. Israel’s objectives in attacking Iran in June 2025 focused on the same central features Israel argued a decade earlier were not sufficiently addressed in the JCPOA.
Vigorously promoting this Iran Deal as a viable way to block and limit Iran pathways to a bomb. While recognizing Israel’s intense trepidation to the deal, he forcefully claims that war remains the only alternative to accepting this agreement, or to any changes to the agreement.
Kerry states five major objectives for US foreign policy in the Middle East: mobilize partners to defeat ISIS, work diplomatically to end the civil war in Syria, keep it from destabilizing friendly nearby countries, monitor Iranian adherence to the nuclear deal, and seek a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The US promises Israel $38 billion in military aid over a decade, the assistance promised despite Jerusalem and Washington periodically differing over matters relating to Iran and the Palestinians.
Backpedaling from previously hardline statements on Islam, President Trump refers to Islam as “one of the world’s great faiths” calling for “tolerance and respect for each other.” He implored Muslim leaders to fight against radical Islam, which he portrayed as a “…a battle between good and evil.”
After visiting Saudi Arabia, Trump meets with Netanyahu where both assert joint views on the peace process, Iran, regional cooperation, and the long-standing relationship between Israel and the US; Trumps second meeting with Netanyahu since taking office.
President Trump’s proclamation to “officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel” breaks precedent. In doing so, he incurs bipartisan support in the US congress, but a flurry of criticism from analysts, diplomats and foreign leaders. In his remarks, Trump rebukes claims that he disqualified the US as a “reliable mediator” in future Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
Vice President Pence firmly expresses American commitments to Israel’s security and commitment to the Arab-Israeli peace process. Palestinian Authority President Abbas and other Arab officials loudly criticize the speech and refuse to meet with Pence during his Middle East visit because of earlier US promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
With reams of evidence secured by Israeli intelligence, the PM calls out Iran for lying about their nuclear activities both before and since signing the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement with six countries.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers a more muscular vision of the U.S. presence in the Middle East than President Barack Obama offered in the same Cairo venue 10 years earlier.
The plan builds on previous proposals for a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and contains a US-Israeli agreement that sets forth final borders for two states. The plan contains multiple prerequisites for Palestinian behavior before either the US or Israel might agree to Palestinian statehood as well as a proposed $50 economic development package to be allotted over a decade.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman provides the most detailed Trump administration analyses of the prescribed two-state solution for terminating the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
President Trump announces the diplomatic breakthrough under which Israel halts its plans to annex parts of the West Bank and the United Arab Emirates agrees to full diplomatic relations with Israel without any Israeli land concesssions.
Quietly pursued in the past, long-standing strategic ties between Israel and Gulf states have become public. Building on the historic Joint Agreement signed between Israel and the UAE in August 2020, the Abraham Accords serve as a framework for normalizing diplomatic relations between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain.
A week after Antony Blinken’s confirmation as Secretary of State, the Acting US Ambassador to the UN outlined with considerable detail the administration’s objective to an agreed, not imposed two-state resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
On President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel, he and Prime Minister Yair Lapid affirmed the long-term U.S.-Israel strategic relationship.
Siegel resigned over two matters: the administration’s policy of selling advanced fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which he believed a threat to Israel’s national security, and his sharp disagreement with the Carter White House for not allowing alternative views on policy matters to find their way to the President’s desk. Siegel’s detailed interview about the administration’s anti-Israeli viewpoints are explained here.
The Camp David accords culminated after thirteen days of intense negotiations between Israeli, Egyptian, and American delegations. Egyptian and Israeli leaders met with President Carter where after difficult negotiations they signed two accords, one an outline for an Egyptian-Israeli Treaty and one for Palestinian self-rule. The negotiations continued for another six months until the Egyptian-Treaty was signed in March 1979, after considerable bad feeling was tossed back and forth between Israeli and American negotiators.
After the horrific Hamas attack on Israel, President Joe Biden unequivocally categorizes Hamas’ brutality as “pure, unadulterated evil” and reiterates that the U.S. will “stand with Israel.”
Amid a ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu becomes the first foreign leader to visit the White House during the second Trump administration, and President Donald Trump uses the occasion to declare his intention to take over and redevelop Gaza.
Abdullah II remains studiously noncommittal in support of Donald Trump’s idea for the U.S. to take over the Gaza Strip, rebuild it and relocate its Palestinian residents to other countries. With Jordan’s strong economic, strategic and defense ties to Washington, no one expected the king to be effusive for Trump’s suggestions for Gaza’s future. Jordan lacks the economic and demographic absorptive capacities and the political interest to take another wave of Palestinians into its territory.
Benjamin Netanyahu makes his second White House visit of Donald Trump’s second term, but the discussion this time expands beyond Gaza and regional peace to include bilateral trade after a Trump announcement of new tariffs on Israeli goods.
May 13, 2025 President Donald Trump’s address laying out a vision for Middle East peace and prosperity and ending sanctions on Syria at the 2025 Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, https://www.youtube.com/live/wj1QOz3iuCE?si=qQRR2GcqZhtt1F5o Well, thank…
