When President Barack Obama visited Saudi Arabia last week, the circumstances were different from those prevailing during his last trip to the region in 2009, before the Arab Spring. Some of the issues he had at hand during the current visit included security in the Gulf region, peace in the Middle East and the rise of extremism.
According to reports in regional media, Arab people who were enthused by his previous visit were indifferent this time.
Mr Obama’s speech in 2009 misled Arabs into thinking that the US foreign policy that had led to widespread disillusionment in the region had finally changed. The Arabic media has called for the US to revisit its policy in the Arab world.
“It is of great importance that President Obama comes to a deeper understanding of what is happening in Egypt and the region. He must know that his country’s policies towards regional affairs may have a positive or negative impact on people and countries in the region. We would therefore suppose that the right stand will be taken, one that will untie knots, instead of leading to further complications,” wrote Mohammed Al Hammadi editor in chief of Al Ittihad, the sister publication of The National.
Stability in the region, he stressed, is only possible once stability is achieved in Egypt. “Egypt is facing an immense rift and needs to be taken by the hand by the international community,” Al Hammadi added.
This should not be neglected and President Obama needs to grasp all the subtleties behind current regional dynamics and revise his country’s foreign policy accordingly.
For instance, the US position on the Syrian crisis leaves no room for doubt that Washington does not wish to support the Syrian anti-jihadist rebels. By maintaining its veto on sending anti-aircraft missiles to the opposition, the US cleared the way for the regime of Bashar Al Assad to extend the conflict, allowing extremists to intensify their activities and leaving the Syrian people at their mercy.
Michel Touma, a columnist in the French-language Lebanese daily L’Orient Le Jour, observed that “President Obama has strengthened his fiercest opponent in Tehran, with whom he strives to achieve an entente cordiale”. This also boosted the emergence of Sunni extremism in Syria and Lebanon. Many members of the Obama administration have criticised him for his passivity towards this issue, stressing that such a situation has now transformed into a threat to US national security.
In the current state of affairs, immediate action is required, “but it must not translate into direct military intervention. With the capabilities of a superpower like the United States, a multiplicity of approaches may be the best option to compel [Mr Al Assad] to exit and bring the violence to an end”, Touma argued.
Mr Obama is definitely aware that the region still suffers from the aftermath of Arab Spring, which was highly unexpected.
While most of the media focused on the past and present of US-Saudi relations and examined the repercussion of Mr Obama’s meeting with King Abdullah, some dwelt on the future of these relations.
In a world with an ever-changing balance of power, the main objective is to avoid deep divergence in visions between the biggest superpower in the world and one of the most important powers in the Arab region, one commentator noted.
“Discrepancy would be harmful to the interests of their respective policies on Arab and regional issues,” explained Ghassan Al Imam, a columnist with the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat.
Clearly, the meeting led to coordination and mutual understanding on certain issues. Needless to say, the US and Saudi Arabia are two sovereign and independent countries and it is therefore unlikely that they practise a fully unified policy, argued Al Imam.
“We now stand before a transitional phase that will allow the countries to move from mutual understanding to mutual comprehension and cooperation,” he said.
Political consultation, dialogue and diplomatic communication are essential to achieve decisions such as establishing cordial ties with Iran, which the media regarded as a security threat to the region because of its interference in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza.
“The US will take much of the blame in the future should it fail to consult Saudi, to distinguish suppositions versus realities in US-Iran ties,” Al Imam said.
Deep divisions within the Obama administration have created a haze over US policy in the region. Mr Obama’s hesitation in his approach to the Syrian crisis has led Russian president Vladimir Putin to overcome the crisis in Ukraine and reclaim the strategic Crimean peninsula.
Decisiveness is key to foreign policy, while hesitation may lead to grave consequences on the balance of power in the region, the writer concluded.
CMirza@thenational.ae
