Donald Trump went to Riyadh with a plan and a goal. In the U.S. president‘s speech, which lasted slightly longer than the one he delivered on his inauguration day last January, Trump set the tone for his own policy on the Middle East by making a strategic choice, at least until he changes his mind. The “smackdown” on Israel was fierce, the likes of which had not been given even by Joe Biden, who had little admiration for Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of Gaza and Lebanon, and the manner in which the American change of stance was announced was also carefully “chosen”.

The US President, before announcing that the US support the plan for a new Syria by effectively becoming guarantors of the Saudi and Turkish plan, had made sure to “put on fire” the atmosphere by talking about a phone call with Erdogan… Donald Trump is neither a man nor a President who will hide. After the formal denials about the break in relations with Netanyahu, he made sure in his own way to confirm what both White House and Israeli Presidency circles were denying a few hours earlier…

What will happen from now on in the Middle East cannot be predicted or mapped but it is a fact that without Israel or ultimately a significant retreat by Israel there can be no stability, peace and general calm in a region that has over time produced the opposite: conflicts and tectonic tremors of global proportions.

Trump’s choice is again based on a commercial mentality. The US President arrived in Riyadh with a 1 trillion guaranteed investment in mind. It may be that the final – or initial – starting amount that the heir to the throne has signed off on is for 600 billion but Trump is well aware that Saudi Arabia will stand by on an “economic” issue either of the country or his own personally. The US President even made the bilateral agreements signed a personal issue again by following the beaten path that suits him so well. More than 6 times the most powerful politician on the planet has personally referred to Prince Salman and in a personal tone and with a broad smile praised the work done in the country.

From Trump’s speech, however, few noticed a subtle warning that came with a deadline, though not an exact one. Trump “emptied” Israel by suggesting that he decides the balance of power around the world, but he did not fail to warn Iran in a more stern tone than ever before. The US President made it clear that nuclear weapons are not and will never be acceptable to Tehran and reiterated that the US proposal that has been on the table for a month must be answered “now or never”.

Trump’s US knows that Tehran is a turning point – rising or falling depending on choices and manipulations – for the entire zone, and the President understands that Tehran is a legitimate issue for both Tel Aviv and the entire region. Once again, however, Trump did not talk about a “war,” at least not a “traditional” one with bombing and battlefields, but one that he reminded us had begun in his first term and was economic.

Trump had indeed opened the “spigot” with the most severe sanctions ever imposed on a country, a practice that was maintained to some extent by Joe Biden until he approved the “unfreezing” of several billion dollars to Tehran with the commitment that its nuclear program would go the other way and be put on ice indefinitely. The truth is that neither Trump’s tariffs during his first term nor Biden’s move solved the problem. They served as mere “painkillers” to a chronic “migraine” that, to heal, apparently requires a very different “treatment.”