US-Middle Eastern Relations.. From friendship to near death

[The SC]

The American magazine "Foreign Policy" published a report that highlighted the decline in US relations with many friendly or allied countries in the Middle East, due to the decline of the US role in the region and the focus on other files and regions, until it reached tension after the apathy in the Arab Gulf region. Recently.

The magazine says that the United States succeeded in including Egypt on its team about 50 years ago. It was a "major victory in the zero-sum diplomacy of the Cold War," when the two superpowers, America and the Soviet Union, raced to gather regional proxies. The Egyptians then joined a club of Saudis, Jordanians, Israelis and small Gulf states seeking protection following the British withdrawal from their positions east of the Suez Canal in 1971.

Over the next decade, the United States became more directly involved in the Middle East, with the mentioned states forming the basic building block for a group of American-friendly states that made it easier for Washington to achieve its goals in the region such as protecting the flow of oil from the region, helping to ensure Israeli security, and preventing The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, along with a series of other "overly ambitious" policies such as the invasion of Iraq, as described by The American Journal

But today, relations have reached poor levels and Washington's friendships in the Middle East are dying, as the Saudis and Emiratis have not responded to the Biden administration's demands to pump more oil, in conjunction with the high global prices as a result of Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Soon after the attack, the Emirati government abstained from voting on a draft resolution condemning the attack in the United Nations Security Council. While US President Joe Biden was seeking to unite the world against Russia; We will find that Saudi Arabia and the UAE did not support the sanctions imposed against Russia, their partner in OPEC +.

In mid-March, the Emiratis hosted the President of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, in Dubai. It is difficult to imagine the message that Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed wanted to send when he received a person responsible for widespread crimes against humanity, but it is clear that the hosting reflects the different attitudes between them and the United States.

It can be argued that the problems were slowly accumulating in the US relationship with the Saudis, but the combination of regional, international and political factors that came together in recent months was the reason for the apparent deterioration in relations. Remember the last time a Middle Eastern leader refused to answer a phone call from the President of the United States? We now have two recent facts, says Foreign Policy.

Loss of faith in the United States of America

And it's not just "personal revenge" here, as the Saudis and Emiratis don't seem to have the slightest confidence in American declarations about Washington's commitment to their protection. Let's go back in time to the days of the Trump administration, and remember the Iranian bombing of Saudi oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais in September 2019. At the time, the US President chose not to respond to those attacks. This undermined four decades of US policy aimed at defending the oil fields in the Gulf against threats emanating from within and outside the region.

And it's not just about the Saudis and the Emiratis either. Israel may have been quiet in its criticism of the United States under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, but he and his foreign minister, Yair Lapid, were clear that the Israelis would not abide by any new nuclear deal with Iran.

They also pressured the administration to re-list the Houthis as terrorism, and they shared the Emiratis and Saudis' concerns about Iran's Revolutionary Guards. For their part, the Egyptians have acquired advanced Russian weapons in recent years, and are still hedged their relations with China, refusing to choose between Washington and Beijing.

Smiles prevailed at the recent "Negev Summit," which brought together the foreign ministers of Israel, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco with the US Secretary of State. But the reality is that years of official US work to build a regional consensus have achieved the desired result, but the consensus now does not include the United States.

Taking all angles into account, we will discover that these issues have made "comrades" in Washington question whether Washington's partners in the Middle East are really partners. At the same time, officials in Middle Eastern capitals raise the same questions about the United States, a situation made worse by talk of “leaving the region” and “staying away from it.”

The current "state of separation" actually started a long time ago

Undoubtedly, the "unruly sentiment" on all sides is understandable, says Foreign Policy, but raising our hands and declaring the failure of American partnerships will not give us any insights to help us understand the cause of this deviation and what, if anything, can be done about it. . It is tempting, of course, to blame the various personalities involved, but the current "state of separation" actually began a long time ago, covering the terms of three US presidents (ie 13 years and counting).

It can be said that the reason for this is due to the fact that these relations bear many historical anachronisms. Where it was discovered, developed, and built for a time long ago. These relations were strengthened by the "global war on terror", but the Americans are now beginning to accept the repercussions of the securitization of their foreign policy over the past two decades, and they want change.

Seen from a larger scale, the core interests that once drove the United States within the Middle East - such as the free flow of oil and the security of Israel - are no longer so urgent. Of course, the Russian attack on Ukraine highlights how important Middle Eastern oil is today, and the transition to clean energy will not be as smooth as some have imagined.

But the acceleration of the process of adaptation to oil alternatives (after 2030 according to the estimates of the US intelligence community) will reduce the importance of the oil fields in the region to the United States. US lawmakers have already expressed their unwillingness to continue to defend and sacrifice Middle Eastern energy security.

Israel is an integrated industrial country with a GDP on par with the United States' allies in Europe, with a record claiming to be able to defend itself. In addition, it is "slowly beginning to integrate with its neighbors", as the Israelis enjoy excellent relations with Greece and Cyprus, as well as the Turkish government's efforts to establish a new relationship with Tel Aviv. In addition, of course, to its new partners in the Arab world - Bahrain, the UAE and Morocco - who joined Jordan and Egypt in the normalization agreements.

"Sick symptoms" herald the death of the American system that was built in the aftermath of World War II

In the end, the American magazine says, it seems that the United States and its friends in the region have reached a turning point where their interests no longer coincide. Of course, officials in Washington and Middle Eastern capitals can reshape old relations based on a set of new goals, but the goals that the United States wants are not desirable to anyone such as confronting China and Russia, or even integrating Iran into the region to achieve stability.

As a result, we have witnessed remarkable developments such as US partners in the Middle East passively supporting Russia, and deepening relations with China. Perhaps a more accurate term to describe these developments is that they are "symptoms" heralding the demise of the American system built in the aftermath of World War II, along with uncertainty about what will happen next.


https://arabicpost.net/تحليلات/2022/04/09/صداقات-أمريكا-في-الشرق-الأوسط/