At present none of the strong actors in the Middle East look to the United States for guidance any longer. This includes Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan and Afghanistan. The waste and failure of two wars in the Middle East has convinced the USA to withdraw. As Rwanda taught the world, the USA has “no friends, it only has interests.” It appears the recent domestic oil finds have changed “our interests.”
The region’s rulers have concluded that the U.S. is a country that won’t stand up for its friends, but instead lectures them about democracy, and then draws red lines it won’t honor. Many critics in the region see the United Sates as an unreliable ally that cannot be counted on if a regime is threatened internally. Instead of supporting its longtime friends in the Middle East, the United States offers lectures on democracy and talks about human rights. Worse, Washington draws red lines, then hesitates.
President Obama entered the Oval Office in January 2009. In his inaugural address, Obama swore that the United States was now “ready to lead the world.”
The successful overthrow of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, where the United States played a leading role, has left that country in chaos. The primary beneficiaries of Gaddafi’s ouster seem to be Al-Qaeda’s affiliates in North Africa and the Sahara.
May 2009, President Obama demanded a halt to the expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and in occupied East Jerusalem….
March 2010, Obama lectured Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a politician Washington installed in office, on the corruption and administrative ineptitude of his government. He was warned that, if he failed to act, a cut in U.S. aid would follow…
August 2011 Syrian President Bashar ignored calls for him “to step aside.” An unnamed senior administration official insisted, “We are certain Assad is on the way out….” The United States then promised support to the rebels. Then it backed away from supporting the Al-Qaeda-aligned elements which appeared to dominate the rebellion.
Sept 2013 Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he would proceed with a plan to build a gas pipeline from Iran, despite objections from the U.S. He used his speech at the United Nations to hit out against American drone strikes in his country. Mr. Sharif also spelled out the conditions for a peace deal with Pakistani Taliban. He voiced fears that continued U.S. drone attacks would wreck his policy to negotiate with the Pakistani Taliban, a group linked to Al-Qaeda.
Jan 2014 A rejuvenated Al-Qaeda-affiliated force took control of the western Iraqi city of Fallujah, raising its flag over government buildings and declaring an Islamic state. This was a crucial area that U.S. troops fought to pacify before withdrawing from Iraq two years ago.
Egypt’s new leaders and those Egyptians who supported the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi are angry at the United States for its condemnation of the army’s actions. To offset Washington’s withholding of some military aid to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates are financing an arms deal worth more than $2 billion between Cairo and Moscow.
February 4, 2014, U.S. chief negotiator with Iran Wendy Sherman conceded that the P5 + 1 agreement, failed to “shut down” Iran’s continuing development of ballistic missiles. Ms. Sherman admitted that if Iran’s nuclear program was only for peaceful purposes, the Islamic Republic “does not need” the fortified, underground enrichment center or plutonium heavy-water reactors. Yet the USA released billions of dollars to Iran which had been frozen.
Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Stephens wrote, has disparaged the administration’s dealings with Iran, and referred to Secretary of State John Kerry as “obsessive and messianic,” in his chase after a Palestinian-Israeli agreement.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, with whom Obama said he had established “bonds of trust,” claimed that America was part of a conspiracy to destabilize his Islamist government.
U.S.-Russia relations after the 2008 Russia-Georgia war were at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War. The USA felt it could “reset the U.S.-Russia relationship” by identifying common interests on which to build cooperation with the Kremlin. In 2014 Russia annexed the Crimea amid threats of consequences….
Nature abhors a vacuum and now Russia is eager to influence events in the Middle East.