Many decades ago former Pakistani President Ayub Khan in his book “Friends Not Masters,” called for building relations between allies on an equal footing and urged world superpowers to respect sovereignty of its allies and stop treating them as pawns on a chessboard.
This has been the dilemma of various US administrations in their dealings with their allies in the Third World countries in general, and in the Arab world, in particular. The US mistakes are countless and they need volumes to write about. It suffices to mention the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq as examples when the US took military decisions unilaterally and raised the slogan “those who are not with us are against us.”
These military interventions have caused a lot of chaos and failed to bring stability and political solutions and resulted in the mushrooming of terrorist organizations in the Middle East and divided the entire region along sectarian lines.
Since the US military intervention in Iraq 13 years ago, relations between the US and the Arab Gulf countries started to take new shape. These countries began to feel that the US had betrayed them when they realized that the Bush administration’s rationale for invading Iraq under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was unfounded, and that it failed to bring about the much talked about democracy model in Iraq.
They also felt that the US was appeasing the Iranian regime at the expense of these countries’ security and interests. The situation became intolerable after the US withdrawal from Iraq and its ambiguous policies regarding the internal strife in Iraq and Syria.
This flaw in the bilateral relations had to come to an end. When Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman came to power last January, things began to take new shape. The new leadership made it clear that the flaws in the US policies had caused strains in the two countries’ relations, especially regarding the growing Iranian intervention in the region and Iran’s support for Shiite groups in Mideast conflicts.
Things got worse following the nuclear deal; when Saudi Arabia felt that lifting sanctions on Iran according to the terms of the deal would embolden Iran to continue its interventions in the internal affairs of the region.
Despite the many assurances by top US officials that the Obama administration will help the Arabs counter Iran’s “destabilizing activities,” the ground realities were not convincing.
Then came the Shiite Iranian-backed Houthi rebellion in Yemen. Here, the Saudi leadership realized that the threat is approaching its backyard. So, with a strong young defense minister, and a coalition of some Arab and friendly countries, Saudi Arabia launched massive airstrikes against the Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salah.
This decision to end the Houthi rebellion, which has threatened to put the Kingdom into direct confrontation with Iran, was a clear message that the new leadership was determined to defend its borders and security even if it angers its allies.
After four months of relentless airstrikes against Houthi positions along with the blockading of Yemeni ports and airports and the landing in Aden of armored brigade and reformation of the Yemeni armed forces, the Houthis are now on the back foot.
It is in the backdrop of these developments that the king made his first royal visit to Washington. The visit to Washington took place following careful preparations and deliberations. Naturally, due to the many thorny issues, no one could expect full understanding between the two sides, especially regarding the situation in Syria.
US Secretary of State John Kerry told the New York Times last Wednesday, “We are determined that our Gulf friends will have the political and military support that they need.”
President Obama explained and affirmed that the agreement prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, has a robust and unprecedented inspections regime that includes inspections of all sites... and that has provision for snap back of sanctions should Iran violate the terms of their agreement,” he added.
We hope this visit would help rectify relations between the two countries.
