Reuters today evaluated the efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry to dampen an increasingly public spat between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia over a range of issues. The wire noted that strain has emerged “particularly on Syria’s civil war and the nuclear dispute with Iran.” It also assessed that, in the final analysis, Kerry’s goodwill efforts fell somewhat short:
If Secretary of State John Kerry visited Riyadh to reassure top Saudis that their anger over U.S. Middle East policy is unfounded, he has more work to do… Nevertheless, the Saudis seem to remain unconvinced. “This is the feeling in the inner circle: They welcome his visit. They respect his desire to see the king. But he brought the glass half empty,” said Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf Research Centre based in Jeddah and Geneva. Washington has shown some willingness to risk strains with allies to pursue U.S. goals of avoiding military intervention in Syria and seeking a nuclear deal with Iran.
NBC News had previously suggested that Saudi Arabia was largely distancing itself from the U.S. due to warming relations between Tehran and Washington. The outlet went so far as to foreground a phone call between President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as perhaps “cost[ing] the U.S.” its alliance with Riyhad.
Tensions between the two traditional allies, however, predate the current round of Western diplomacy with the Islamic republic. The Saudis have for years been critical of the Obama administration’s Egypt policy, with frustration growing as the White House responded to each major political development in Cairo’s post-Arab Spring environment. Riyadh had warned Obama off too quickly abandoning former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, had watched with trepidation as the Muslim Brotherhood rose to power a year later, and had quickly supported the Egyptian military when – another year later – it responded to historically unprecedented anti-government protests by unseating the Brotherhood government.
The Kingdom believes that its warnings regarding Mubarak went largely unheeded, that the U.S. was insufficiently wary of the Brotherhood’s growing influence, and that the U.S.’s response to the Egyptian army’s moves against the Brotherhood-linked then-president Mohammed Morsi were borderline inexplicable.”
The nearly three year old Syrian conflict, meanwhile, has become a regional proxy battle pitting the U.S.’s traditional Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia, against an extremist Shiite bloc anchored by Iran and an extremist Sunni camp made up of among others Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Saudis have repeatedly expressed frustration at what they describe as dithering by Washington in supporting its traditional allies.
[Photo: U.S. Department of State / WikiCommons ]
