It’s not just our Syria non-policy that has the Saudis at arm’s length. The newfound cooperation between President Obama and President Rouhani of Iran has put an added strain on the US-Saudi relationship. The Saudis, like the Israelis, are displeased with the prospect of US-Iranian non-proliferation talks. They see them as an Iranian ploy to ease UN sanctions while continuing to press toward getting the bomb. And while the Saudis are a key American ally, they are adept at securing their interests in the region and are not beholden to Washington. If they continue to be dissatisfied with US policy, they might hinder, or at a minimum do nothing to help, other US interests in the Middle East.
I’d be very surprised if Jerusalem and Riyadh aren’t having some serious back-channel talks. They both know they can’t count on this White House.
In a sense I’m tempted to just say fuck ’em and let them rot in the stew they’ve made. The saudis have contributed greatly to the worldwide radicalization of Islam, and now they find themselves right smack in the middle of all of it. Look at what lies within a few hundred miles of the Saudi borders in every direction: Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen. There is so much crazy shit happening in each of those countries right now (car bombs, terrorist attacks, chemical weapons attacks, all happening practically on a weekly basis) that it can’t be very comfortable sitting within the kingdom these days.
But that sort of strategy is not terribly helpful. Personally if I were the president I would be using the situation as leverage with the Saudis, pushing for reforms to get them to stop exporting radicalism around the world for one thing. Given the position they’re in right now I think they might be much more inclined to see the light.
The saudis have the same problem that the GOP does. To maintain power for the Monarchy,
they’ve had to assuage the religious radicals, so they focused the radicals outwards.
Unfortunately a generation of these maniacs and now they are everywhere.
Once again, if this was an attempt to post something intelligent, it was a pathetic fail.