“There are plenty of good ideas in the economic plan. None of them are new. They have been proposed in previous economic plans.

“But there are two big problems. First, the U.S. had aid programs to support all these goals, but the Trump administration canceled them. That kills our credibility in asking others for money.

“Second, you can’t get others to invest in this effort without knowing the political backdrop. And since the administration has not presented its political plan, I expect most countries in Bahrain to say, ‘We are theoretically prepared to invest later, as long as we are talking about a two-state solution.”

Read the full transcript here: