Doubtless the White House is busy explaining away the effective boycott by Gulf leaders of President Obama’s summit at Camp David: the king of Saudi Arabia is non compos mentis; the leadership of the United Arab Emirates was never going to come anyway; the others don’t really matter, have to follow the lead of the big guys, etc. But don’t believe it. This is nothing other than a slap in the face to President Obama, and a deliberate repudiation of his Iran–first policy in the Middle East.
On the one hand, the notion of any Arab leader snubbing any president of the United States is offensive. On the other, it’s hard not to see their point of view: the United States has deliberately withdrawn from the region, and insofar as it remains, the interests of our erstwhile allies – from Israel to Saudi Arabia – are not first and foremost in the mind of this White House. Worse yet, Gulf countries, now engaged in what they see as a pitched battle for the future of the region, see Washington doing Iran’s bidding: helping Bashar al Assad stay in power; playing middleman to Iran as it hopes to take over Yemen via proxies; providing air cover for Iranian led militias in Iraq, and more. And while some of the suspicions of the Sunni leaders in the region are overblown, sadly, many are not.
Cynics might suggest that the deepening of the Sunni – Shia divide in the Middle East is of no interest to the United States, in a Chamberlainesque small-country-far-away vein. Would it were so. Rather, Saudi Arabian, Emirati, and other efforts to contain the growing Iranian threat risk exacerbating problems without presenting any solution (viz. Libya, Yemen). Their interventions and American malign neglect have done little more than open up more space for al Qaeda and its ilk.
President Obama had hoped to reassure Gulf leaders about his intentions and, of course, Iran’s. Instead, he has yet another diplomatic and political disaster on his hands.
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