Donald Trump’s decision to personally chair the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday — and put Iran in the pillory as a rogue state — promises to be a hot ticket and higher on histrionics than his warm-up speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. Mr Trump’s relentless animosity towards the Islamic Republic, and unilateral abrogation of the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear ambitions reached by his predecessor Barack Obama, is one of the more consistent tropes in his erratic administration.
Yet while he has managed to do substantial damage in the Middle East, his shrillness fails to hide how easily Iran, sometimes alongside other regional adversaries, outmanoeuvres the US on strategy.
Mr Trump’s casual approach to all matters Middle Eastern has had few objective successes. He brags he is going to deliver the “ultimate deal” and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But by ticking off the wishlist of the Israeli right and hurtling towards a Greater Israel in which Palestinian rights will be limited, he is saddling both sides with permanent instability and grievance.