Opinion | The Latin expression cui bono - who benefits - may be useful to determine the value and significance of Donald Trump's new Middle Eastern 'peace deal'.
The establishment of diplomatic ties between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel will be celebrated by many in the world, including the Australian government and opposition.
At the most obvious level, the deal is clearly a win for US President Donald Trump, who will have something more substantial to run with in the forthcoming presidential election, as far as his Middle East policy is concerned.At another obvious level, it is a victory for the US-Israeli-Saudi alliance. For many years now, this troika has sought to redirect regional focus on the "Iranian threat", rather than the Palestinian question.
It is often the case that what Arab authoritarian regimes work hard to repress is more the foreign policy orientation of their population than their internal aspirations for equality and democracy. As such, the deal will make countries such as Bahrain – which already has a miserable human rights record – become even more repressive.
It has an interest in a more brazen forefronting of "national economic interest" that abandons any pretence of attachment to moral and democratic principles.
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