Saudi Arabia and the UAE led a group of countries that have severed all ties to fellow American ally Qatar over its foreign policy. The US will play a key role in whether it accedes to their demands.
Terrorist attacks in Iran are evidence that, in the Middle East, there are far too many moving parts for US President Donald Trump’s recent trip to have changed much on the ground.
The ongoing diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia has isolated Qatar from the rest of the Middle East while also undermining the anti-Iran alliance among the Gulf countries.
Qatar has used its wealth to adopt policies sometimes rivaling Saudi Arabia’s. Think, for example, of the popular Al-Jazeera. Now the Saudis seem determined to limit Qatari influence as much as possible.
It is not clear in the wake of Trump’s visit to the Middle East is whether his public statements are part of an overarching strategy, or what might be described as a reconnaissance mission.
Shared economic and security interests have kept Saudi Arabia and the US close over the decades despite dramatic differences in the way the two countries are governed.
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In Yemen, the civil conflict will likely drag on in a stalemate between the Houthi movement in the north and the Hadi government in the south. The amphibious landing of Gulf Cooperation Council forces…
Senior Research Fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at IUPUI and Journalist-fellow, USC Dornsife Center for Religion and Civic Culture, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences