Despite a global market in freefall, with oil prices tumbling and major stock indices in retreat, US officials insist that peace efforts in the Middle East will stay on track.
Speaking to Al Arabiya News’ Hadley Gamble in Abu Dhabi, US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Morgan Ortagus dismissed suggestions that Gulf states would be unable to continue funding stabilization efforts in the region.
“They are incredibly wealthy nations. I think they’re going to be okay,” Ortagus said.
The Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average have each fallen by over 10 percent over the past week, and West Texas Intermediate crude flirted with sub-$60 per barrel territory today, after losing more than $10 in just five days. The volatility follows President Donald Trump’s announcement last week of a sweeping new set of tariffs aimed at “bringing manufacturing back to America.”
“Sometimes you have to take medicine in order to fix the patient,” Ortagus said, defending the administration’s approach. “What the President’s economic team feels like they’re doing right now is right-setting a lot of problems the US economy had.”
Ortagus, a senior figure in the Trump administration’s foreign policy team, is in the UAE ahead of a planned May visit by President Trump to the region in May. Stops are expected in Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi. The trip is seen as part of Washington’s push to maintain diplomatic momentum in the wake of the Abraham Accords, and to contain Iranian influence in the Levant.
