Fury in the Kingdom
By ROGER COHEN, NYT
DUBAI — Here’s how the Saudis see it: President Obama has sold out the Syrian opposition, reinforced President Bashar al-Assad after having called for his departure, embarked on a dangerous duet with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, played the wrong cards in Egypt, retreated from initial criticism of Israeli settlements that promised a more balanced American approach to Israel-Palestine, tilted toward the Shiites in the growing regional Sunni-Shiite confrontation, and generally undercut the interests of the kingdom.
To say Saudi Arabia is livid would be an understatement. Hence the Saudi decision to give up a seat on the Security Council that it had long coveted. It was not aimed at the United Nations. It was aimed above all at the United States.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former director of the Saudi intelligence services, put it this way recently: “Washington is not able to reach a cohesive and comprehensible policy vis-à-vis particular situations.” He continued, “On Syria, of course, it has been a continuous retrogression from first statements within a couple of months of the situation in Syria when President Obama said Assad must go until today.”
The Saudis, of course, always talk a good line and are happiest when others — read the United States — do the heavy lifting for them. But they remain an important ally. The pursuit of U.S. interests in the region is made more difficult with the Saudis fuming. The alienation of the kingdom smacks of carelessness from an Obama administration now intent on scaling back expectations in the Middle East even as it declares a nuclear deal with Iran and an Israeli-Palestinian peace to be President Obama’s foreign policy priorities. Neither of these objectives will be able to circumvent Saudi Arabia.
(More here.)
DUBAI — Here’s how the Saudis see it: President Obama has sold out the Syrian opposition, reinforced President Bashar al-Assad after having called for his departure, embarked on a dangerous duet with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, played the wrong cards in Egypt, retreated from initial criticism of Israeli settlements that promised a more balanced American approach to Israel-Palestine, tilted toward the Shiites in the growing regional Sunni-Shiite confrontation, and generally undercut the interests of the kingdom.
To say Saudi Arabia is livid would be an understatement. Hence the Saudi decision to give up a seat on the Security Council that it had long coveted. It was not aimed at the United Nations. It was aimed above all at the United States.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former director of the Saudi intelligence services, put it this way recently: “Washington is not able to reach a cohesive and comprehensible policy vis-à-vis particular situations.” He continued, “On Syria, of course, it has been a continuous retrogression from first statements within a couple of months of the situation in Syria when President Obama said Assad must go until today.”
The Saudis, of course, always talk a good line and are happiest when others — read the United States — do the heavy lifting for them. But they remain an important ally. The pursuit of U.S. interests in the region is made more difficult with the Saudis fuming. The alienation of the kingdom smacks of carelessness from an Obama administration now intent on scaling back expectations in the Middle East even as it declares a nuclear deal with Iran and an Israeli-Palestinian peace to be President Obama’s foreign policy priorities. Neither of these objectives will be able to circumvent Saudi Arabia.
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home