May 26, 2018
Iran’s Supreme Leader has revealed an unpublicized letter sent recently by President Trump to countries in the Middle East, raising questions about how Ali Khamenehi came to know about private correspondence between the US leader and his allies in the region.
The day after Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the nuclear accord with Iran, Khamenehi tweeted that Trump had written a letter to leaders of Persian Gulf Arab states “a few days ago” that demanded they do more in the region. “I spent $7 trillion and you must do something in return,” the Iranian leader claimed the letter stated.
Some thought Iran had a very effective espionage apparatus inside the Persian Gulf Arab states that quickly purloined the letter. Others thought one of the countries, most likely Kuwait or Oman, had given a copy of the letter to Tehran. It would be highly unlikely for a country to reveal a text its spies had stolen and expose the fact that they could get their hands on such a letter. So the latter speculation—that one country gave Iran a copy—was the more favored line of speculation.
Khamenehi also talked about the letter during a speech that day at Farhangian University in Tehran.
“A couple of days ago, Trump wrote a letter to the leaders of the Arab world. We have that letter,” the ayatollah said. “In the letter, he says, ‘I have spent $7 trillion on you; you have to do [what I say].’ You [the US] spent this money to rule over Iraq and Syria. You couldn’t.”
The letter has not been publicly acknowledged by the White House.
The letter, as described by Khamenehi, not only urged US allies to do more in the region’s hot spots, such as Syria, but also sought a quick resolution to an ongoing dispute between the Saudi-led bloc and Qatar.
Saudi Arabia, in turn, privately responded to the letter, an unnamed official in Washington told The Washington Post, and gently pushed back on the pressure about Qatar specifically.
The letter was fully in keeping with what Trump has said publicly, including the call for an end to the spat with Qatar and the insistence that US allies—not just in the Middle East but all around the world—spend more on their own defense and rely less on the United States.
Trump has said publicly that Persian Gulf allies should do more in the region and not rely on the United States as much as they do. He has also brought up the $7 trillion figure multiple times — saying in February, for example, that the United States has spent “$7 trillion in the Middle East,” which he called “a mistake.”
The dollar figure is inaccurate. Actually, since 9/11, the United States has spent $1.88 billion all across the Middle East, with most analysts agreeing there has been little return for the United States. The Islamic Republic, however, insists that the Americans are stealing Muslim wealth by their occupation of Arab lands and also making money by selling arms to the Arab countries. The arms sales have amounted to a few hundred billion dollars.
Last month, Trump publicly criticized Middle Eastern countries that relied on US support. “Countries that are in the area, some of which are immensely wealthy, would not be there except for the United States.
“They wouldn’t last a week. We are protecting them. They have to now step up and pay for what is happening.”
During a phone call with Saudi King Salman in December, Trump asked Saudi Arabia for $4 billion for the effort in Syria.
Khamenehi decried Trump’s April comments, calling them a “humiliation for Muslims” and saying they showed how “Muslims should stand firmly against the US and other domineering powers’ bullying.”
Trump’s remarks did stir discomfort in the Persian Gulf, where some argued that his tone was disrespectful. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a well-known UAE political commentator, was among those angered by the remarks. He retorted in a tweet that his country and others will survive long after Trump is gone.
