By David Ignatius October 23
The strange thing about the crackup in U.S.-Saudi relations is that it has been
on the way for more than two years, like a slow-motion car wreck, but nobody in
Riyadh or Washington has done anything decisive to avert it.
The breach became dramatic over the past week. Last Friday, Saudi Arabia
refused to take its seat on the United Nations Security Council, in what Prince
Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi intelligence chief, described as “a message for
the U.S., not the U.N,” according to the Wall Street Journal. On Tuesday,
Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former head of Saudi intelligence, voiced “a high
level of disappointment in the U.S. government’s dealings” on Syria and the
Palestinian issue, in an interview with Al-Monitor.
What should worry the Obama administration is that Saudi concern about U.S.
policy in the Middle East is shared by the four other traditional U.S. allies
in the region: Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. They argue
(mostly privately) that Obama has shredded U.S. influence by dumping President
Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, backing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi,
opposing the coup that toppled Morsi, vacillating in its Syria policy, and now
embarking on negotiations with Iran — all without consulting close Arab allies….To Read More…..
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