Between Barack Obama and Donald Trump, it's "definitely President Trump" who got U.S. foreign policy right in the Middle East, according to Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris.

"I think what we're seeing today is the product of Obama's rule," Sawiris told CNBC's Hadley Gamble in Abu Dhabi on Monday. He claimed that Russia gained ground in Syria as a result of inaction by the Obama administration, which also allowed extremists in the Middle East to thrive.

"I'm not saying you should police the world, but you can't let evil strive and say, 'It's none of my business.' So I believe President Trump is on the right track," he said.

The Obama administration in 2012 threatened to retaliate if Syria's Bashar Assad used chemical weapons in that country's civil war. The following year, Assad's government killed hundreds of civilians in the town of Ghouta with chemical weapons, but the United States did not respond with military force.

Trump likes to blame the Obama administration for the rise of ISIS and take credit for that group's decline, though ISIS began its rise during the administration of George W. Bush and started to lose ground militarily thanks largely to the Obama administration's support of Kurds fighting the terror group.