Despite all the negative gestures and statements he has made in the past 18 months, my personal and journalistic instinct is to see what US President Donald Trump actually defines and implements as policies before judging him conclusively.

That should take just a month or two at most, given the brisk pace of his bold actions and rhetoric.

It is fair game, though, to react to what he is doing and saying these days in situations where any of us can offer insights based on experiences that he may not have had himself.

So I think we should all be very worried about the tone and direction of Trump’s apparent views on how the US should pursue its relations with Egypt.

I say this only on the basis of what the White House spokesman said on Monday when he reported that Trump had spoken over the phone with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, and that the lead issue in their discussions was “efforts against terrorism and extremism”.

The White House and the Egyptian media both said that Trump praised Egypt’s efforts to fight terrorism, and promised to fully support Egypt in its economic and security plans.

It is good news that one of the most important Arab countries and the world’s most powerful country both plan to cooperate in the critical battle against terrorism and extremism.

It is imperative that Arab and global powers work closely together to defeat this serious and growing terror threat to all countries, by adopting strategies that could succeed.

Yet, Arab and American leaders (and Russian, British, French and other world leaders) who tried this have yet to find those strategies that succeed.

The main reason may be that they continue to refuse to acknowledge that sustained domestic autocracy devoid of citizen political rights, combined with socio-economic stagnation and growing disparities, actually generate the conditions that promote terrorism among Arab citizens who had never been inclined to this sort of criminality before.

more:    http://jordantimes.com/opinion/rami-g-khouri/will-trump-and-sisi-perpetuate-or-avert-proven-disaster