Kelly Craft, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, stated in an interview to Saudi-based news channel Al-Arabiyah on Wednesday that a new country will be recognising Israel in “the next day or two” - and while she did not provide any indication of which country that may be, she added that “we would welcome Saudi Arabia to be next”.

Last week, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain became the third and fourth Arab countries to recognise Israel, which the Trump Administration hailed as “the dawn of the new Middle East”, and the President himself has publicly stated that he believes that Saudi Arabia will also follow suit.

There has been a significant degree of speculation on which countries would follow this American-led effort to normalise relations with Israel, with President Trump meeting the Kuwaiti Emir, Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Salah, at the White House last week. While this peace effort has been viewed as a strategic victory for the United States, further affirming their close relationship with Israel and serving as a rejuvenation of their Middle East policy, the Trump Administration has throttled international support for the Palestinian cause.

The Trump Administration’s efforts in the Middle East have been led by the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and while American policy in the Middle East has always revolved around Israel, it is even more-so under President Trump, as his electoral victory was fuelled by support from his Evangelical Christian conservative base.

In his tenure, President Trump controversially moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (a city of great historical and religious importance to the Palestinians), constricted aid to the Palestinians, and recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a mountainous area seized from Syria in the aftermath of the “six-day war” in 1967. Furthermore, as part of the U.S-brokered economic normalisation between Serbia and Muslim-majority Kosovo, the latter also agreed to recognise Israel, while the Serbian embassy was shifted to Jerusalem.

While the sudden gravitation of Arab and Gulf states has raised outrage, especially from the Palestinian Authority, of “betraying” the Palestinian cause - it is simply a continuation of American policy in the Middle East, which will be rewarded in economic and political inclusion (on an international scale) for those who choose to comply.