'America first' hobbles global leadership of US

Since Donald Trump took office in January, 2017, there has been much speculation about the direction of US policy in the Middle East. Now it has begun to take shape and it spells ill for the region.

With the US president announcing he was withdrawing the United States from the Iran nuclear deal last week, and the US opening its new embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, the ire in the region has grown.

If previous US governments tried hard to shore up the US image as an impartial mediator of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - despite the long tradition of close US-Israeli ties - the pendulum of the current Trump administration has ultimately swung fully in favor of Israel.