In his various speeches, U.S. President Donald Trump has tried to reinforce the notion that he seeks to rescue West Asia and establish peace in the region. Yet this claim is nothing more than Trump’s latest ploy to advance his own interests, because his peace vision amounts to nothing but the imposition of American will upon others.

The premise of this claim is absurd: by establishing extensive military bases, the United States has been a principal architect of many of the problems and challenges in West Asia, and Trump’s current posture as a savior is a political farce.

Over the past two decades, the United States has played a destructive role in the region’s political, security, and social order. After the events of September 11, 2001, U.S. foreign policy grew more aggressive and, under the banner of a purported “war on terror,” adopted an increasingly interventionist, military-driven approach.

That strategic shift provided the pretext for a large military presence in the region and for policies that not only failed to bring stability but also set in motion a cycle of insecurity, state collapse, and the rise of terrorist groups.

Within that framework, the U.S. campaigns in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) were presented as the twin pillars of a “preemptive war.” Claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and of Taliban support for terrorism were used to justify these interventions; yet in both cases, political and social structures disintegrated in the aftermath.

The destruction of state institutions, the purging of indigenous actors from centers of power, and the spread of collective feelings of injustice and humiliation created fertile ground for groups such as al-Qaeda and, later, ISIS to grow.

In reality, U.S. policies that purported to fight terrorism frequently reproduced and expanded it. Even some U.S. officials — including admissions attributed at times to Trump — have acknowledged that ISIS was, in effect, a by-product of the region’s post-intervention dynamics and failures of intelligence and policy.

Meanwhile, unconditional U.S. support for Israel has driven the cycle of instability and atrocity in West Asia to its deepest extremes.

This is a realm where the Zionist regime, armed with U.S. weapons, has killed over 68,000 Palestinians over two years and devastated Gaza with 200,000 tons of bombs; launched widespread attacks that killed countless Lebanese civilians; targeted the infrastructure of Yemen and Syria; and, ultimately, conducted terrorist strikes against Iran as one of the primary pillars of the so-called regional peace.

These U.S. behaviors and interventions over more than twenty years have made West Asia perhaps the world’s most crisis-ridden region, a situation directly traceable to aggressive and militaristic American policies.

Against this backdrop, Trump — striking a peaceable pose — claims he will rescue a region the United States itself has helped turn into a flashpoint.

Perhaps the U.S. government can momentarily distract global media with spectacles like the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, but the reality is clear: until Washington ends its interference in regional affairs and restrains the leash on the Israeli regime, West Asia will not achieve lasting calm. The embers smoldering beneath the surface will sooner or later flare into open flames.

Source: Sedaye Iran, the online newspaper of the Institute of the Islamic Revolution of Iran — October 26, 2025