Donald Trump wants to “change the game” in the Middle East by pushing for a normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, says David Lammy.
The Foreign Secretary stressed that the incoming US president is not a “warmonger” and believes he will be “fixed and focused” on encouraging such an agreement.
He also emphasised that for the ceasefire in Gaza to be turned into a longer term peace deal Israel needed to be guaranteed its security and the Palestinian people had to be given “hope, politics and opportunity” as part of a two-state solution.
Asked about what he expected Trump’s stance to be on the Middle East conflict, Mr Lammy told BBC radio: “Two things that I took away from my extended dinner with Donald Trump in September.
“This is not a man who in any sense is a warmonger.
“I really had a powerful sense that in reckoning with the world’s most malign interests he was very clear that he wanted to be strong and powerful but he is not embracing war.”
He continued: “The second thing is I would say that Trump is a revisionist actor, he wants to change the rules of the game and the terms of the deal.
“In his last administration, he brokered the Abraham Accords, I think he still is very focused on the possibility of Saudi normalisation with Israel.
“That can only come if there is a path to two states and I say that having spent this time last week in Saudi Arabia and Israel and it’s clear to me that there has to be an opening and a pathway to two states if we are going to get that Saudi deal and I think Donald Trump will be pretty fixed and focused on that opportunity and in a sense that is what changes the game in the Middle East.”
Mr Lammy also stressed that the Gaza ceasefire was a “crucial geopolitical moment” but it was “hugely important” to turn it into a process that allows Palestinians a “political horizon”.
He added: “Military might alone does not destroy Hamas terrorism. It is a political process that allows the Palestinian people a political horizon.
“That’s what we’ve got to get to, and we’ve got to give security to Israel, and that means the governance of Gaza, how Israelis remain secure and do not have another event like October 7th.
“But how, indeed, we bring the Palestinian Authority back in in Gaza, how the Arab states, Gulf states, are able to step back in and assist us and others with the reconstruction of Gaza... that is the significance of these next few weeks, and that’s what we’ve got to get to.”
