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On Tuesday, keen-eyed observers of the Trump transition will have marked a potentially seismic shift in the incoming administration’s priorities in the Middle East.
On Monday, the Senate confirmed Michael DiMino as Deputy Assistant Sect. of Defense for Middle East Policy, a long-winded yet consequential foreign policy position at the Pentagon. Before confirmation, DiMino was a senior fellow at Defense Priorities, a think tank that brands itself a “hub of realism and restraint”.
DiMino publishes semi-regularly, and in a webinar hosted by Defense Priorities last year, the new Dep. Ass. Secretary claimed US interests in the Middle East are “non-existent”.
“Vital or existential US interests in the Middle East are best characterized as minimal to non-existent. And I think if you look at America’s experience as the primary security broker for the region … it has not rendered any lasting political, economic, or security benefits in service of US interests or the American people,” he said.
A day later, President Trump announced that he had officially dismissed Brian Hook, an Iran hawk who served in the first Trump Administration as the architect of his “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions and intimidation against Iran. Hook resigned in 2020 claiming he had failed to achieve the campaign’s goals.
Hook then played a “key” role in helping to staff the incoming State Department for Trump’s second term. However, on Tuesday Trump took to X and served four “Official Notices of Dismissal,” to three Biden Administration appointees and Hook, writing “You’re Fired”.
Reviewing the decision, the Libertarian Insitute reports that Hook was a long-time critic of Biden’s hands-off approach to Iran, claiming the former President ran a “policy of appeasement” that led to a “failure of deterrence”.
Potential sea change
The decision to dismiss Hook could, and likely should be marked as a major point of interest, as not only had Trump worked with Hook before, but used the former Wilson Center scholar to staff his cabinet in preparation for what is more-or-less the same US-Iran relations that existed when Trump last held office.
Then, as now, a moderate president held power in Tehran, and the country was gradually mastering the uranium fuel cycle for nuclear energy. Then, as now, Trump’s State Department will be led by a major Iran hawk in Marco Rubio, and there has been no indication from the new President of Iran or Trump that any interest in negotiations exists.
One is left wondering if anything has changed.
DiMino has opposed attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities and war with Iran in general. DiMino’s boss, if confirmed, will be Army veteran and Fox News host Pete Heggseth, who has maintained very strong, mainstream Republican views on Tehran, calling it “an evil regime” in 2020, and advocating aggressive military action against the country to ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons.
This strange conflict of opinion mirrors certain staffing decisions in Trump’s first term, including the late appointment of retired Colonel and Terror War critic Douglas McGregor to serve as senior advisor to the Sec. of Defense, and of John Bolton as National Security Advisor, whose opinions on North Korea differed so strongly from Trump’s that he single-handedly scuppered the advanced negotiations with Pyongyang to formally end the Korean War.
DiMino’s arrival and Hook’s departure don’t necessarily mean stable relations with Iran are forthcoming, but if they were to mark the beginning of a trend, it could signify that Washington sees détente with Tehran as beneficial; perhaps in the context of a currently weakened Hezbollah and Hamas.
The ceasefire agreement in Gaza, strongly linked to the Trump campaign as opposed to Biden’s team who still had control of the White House, shows that despite the preponderance of Zionists among Trump’s allies, they were still willing to negotiate on some points. Trump had previosuly maintained that Tel Aviv should “finish the job” and not cease its operations in Gaza until Hamas is completely defeated. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: President Trump signing Day 1 executive orders. PC: The White House, via X.
