A campaign advisor to Donald Trump clarified the US President-elect’s recent remarks about NATO and the EU.

A campaign advisor to Donald Trump clarified the US President-elect’s recent remarks about NATO and the EU.

On Sunday, Trump called NATO “obsolete,” in remarks that shocked European leaders.

Walid Phares told Al-Hadath television channel, Al Arabiya’s sister channel, that Trump’s statements were blown out of proportion.

“Trump’s view of NATO is not like the media represents it and it’s not even how he presents it on Twitter. He does not want an end to NATO but he wants to reform it as it has the new task of confronting terrorism and combating extremism. The new US administration will work on negotiating with NATO commanders,” Phares said.

Addressing the region’s affairs, Phares said the entire new administration agrees that Iran’s strategic intentions towards the US and its allies are undesirable.

“There are things we must reach agreements about such as Tehran’s military interventions in some of the region’s countries,” he said.

Regarding Syria, Phares said that during the presidential campaign, they met with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura who informed them about the negotiations’ process.

“We also met with a Syrian opposition delegation. Trump used to say he will not have a project of launching a war to end a war. He said he wants to negotiate and as a president-elect, relevant institutions began informing him of developments in Syria. This is new. His new stance will be assigning his teams to prepare plans,” Phares added.

Phares also said that Barack Obama’s administration “lost a lot of Gulf support.”

“The new administration has begun rebuilding bridges between the Gulf and Trump. There are now issues (to address) and that are related to Iran and Yemen as well as different scenarios related to Iraq and Syria,” he added.

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