US President Barack Obama may have made it perfectly clear that any sort of a possible deal with Iran would not endanger the security of the Gulf region but he failed to offer the Arab Gulf countries a defense pact.

During the Camp David meeting held some two weeks ago, Obama’s assurance to the Gulf Arab leaders failed to convince anyone in this part of the world that that the United States is not disengaging

slowly from the region.Obviously, the American administration did not understand the Arabs’ legitimate security concerns and therefore failed to reconfirm the American commitment in the region. To be sure, Iran does not have the military option to invade other Arab states. And therefore the Arabs’ concerns are not really about an external invasion but about the continuous meddling of Iran in the internal affairs of the Arab

countries. Seen in this way, Obama’s assurances that his country would defend the Gulf countries from an external threat do not resonate well in this part of the world.

Obama seems incapable of understanding the consequences of his flirting with Iran and the result of his apparent inaction in the face of Iranian bullying in the region. For this reason, political pundits in the Arab world argue that the United States should wake up before it is too late. Obama’s calculation that a deal with Iran could make the Islamic Republic a status quo state rather than a revisionist one is naïve, to say the least. Iran will most likely use the deal to realize two objectives: First, lifting the sanction and freeing the frozen asset. Second, Tehran may use the flow of cash to further flex its muscles in the region.

In other words, the Arabs’ concern is not only about the nuclear deal, but also about the repercussion of such a deal on the internal affairs of the Arab countries.

Do the Gulf countries have a choice other than waiting for the United States to step in and prop up stability in the region? Not a while ago, the Gulf countries began to take the initiative in the region.

Rather than waiting for the United States, the Gulf countries put their house together and began to create a new strategic reality independent of the position of Washington. The airstrikes in Yemen and the coordination with Turkey to change the balance of military power on the ground in Syria should be seen as a message to the United States and Iran, which states that the Gulf countries will not sit idly by while Iran continues with its aggressive policies unchecked.

Over the last two months, Saudi Arabia has shown that there is a huge difference between Obama’s desire to cut a deal with Iran and compromising the security of the Gulf region for the sake of “Obama’s legacy” in the region.

The dominant theme in the Gulf region is that Obama has been falling in the Iranian trap of appeasement. No matter what Obama thinks, the Arabs insist that Iran is nothing but a revisionist state that will do what takes to destabilize the region as a whole.

Perhaps, the most salient issue is that the Gulf countries are sending a clear message to the United States saying that the relationship should better be a two-way process. In other words, there is a difference

between being in a strategic partnership with the United States and being dependent on Washington. Any close look at the statements coming from senior officials in the Gulf countries reveal that their countries will never accept that the security of the Gulf to be subordinated to the imperatives of an American-Iranian rapprochement.

It remains to be seen, however, what the Gulf countries are up to in months and years to come. Yet, events unfolded over the last few months indicate a turning point in the way the Gulf countries perceive themselves and others. If anything, there is nothing more damaging to the standing of the United States than being seen as retrenching from the region. Obviously, Obama’s approach to the region is fraught with a lot of problems and challenges. Worse, Obama will leave office in January 2017 leaving a lot to be desired.