American Interests Suffer as Biden Succeeds in Shrinking America’s Mideast Footprint

It’s looking like President Biden has been exceedingly successful in his goal of lessening our footprint in the Mideast, at a cost: As the region tunes out Washington, American interests are harmed. A trove of Pentagon documents that may have been leaked to serve the interests of adversaries shows that former top Arab allies, from Egypt to the Arabian peninsula, are seeking ties with Moscow and Beijing at America’s expense. Mr. Biden and President Obama have long attempted to shame Saudi Arabia into ending its involvement in the decade-old war in Yemen, which is showing signs of winding down for the first time in years. Yet, at the first indication of success, America is nowhere to be seen.Crown Prince Mohamad bin Salman’s long sought-for negotiations with his Houthi adversaries follow the Beijing-chaperoned Saudi rapprochement with Tehran. If one of the longest and cruelest recent Mideast wars is to end, it would be no thanks to Washington’s dwindling influence over MbS. Meanwhile, the torrent of bad news for America from the intelligence community’s leaked documents is intensifying. The Washington Post reports, based on a leaked February intel document, that the Egyptian president has ordered underlings to produce up to 40,000 rockets to help Russia in its war on Ukraine. There is no indication that the rockets were in fact manufactured, and Washington may have used its influence to lean on Cairo to stop the initiative. Yet, the mere idea that President Sisi is even contemplating support for Russia’s war is mind-boggling.In the 1970s, America managed to pull Cairo out of the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. Following Anwar Sadat’s 1977 peace treaty with Israel, Egypt became the second-largest recipient of American foreign aid. It now gets more than $1 billion in military aid annually. Another leaked document cites an assessment that the United Arab Emirates, one of America’s staunchest Mideast allies, is now cooperating with Russia. Moscow’s intelligence agency, the FSB, claims that Abu Dhabi agreed to cooperate with the Russian spies against America and the United Kingdom. “The UAE probably views engagement with Russian intelligence as an opportunity to strengthen growing ties between Abu Dhabi and Moscow and diversify intelligence partnerships amid concerns of US disengagement from the region,” the leaked intelligence assessment from January says, the Associated Press reports. The leaked document trove “seems to be cherry-picked to benefit the revisional powers that work to undermine the U.S. position in the world, Russia and China,” a Mideast watcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, Jonathan Schanzer, says. Yet, no one in the intelligence community denies the authenticity of the documents, and an extensive multi-agency probe has been launched into the leak. So while they may only point to facts that serve America’s adversaries, Mr. Schanzer tells the Sun, the leaked documents do reflect a reality of “deterioration and a weakening of American influence in the region.”No wonder, seeing that as soon as Mr. Biden became president, he went out of his way to provoke the Saudis, who are “the financial and spiritual engine of the region,” Mr. Shcanzer says. Egypt, for one, widely relies on ties with the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council. “People underestimate MbS,” the founder of the International Center for Dialogue Initiative, a Mideast-centered think tank, Jamal Benomar, says. “MbS is doing what is right for his national interests.”A former UN special representative to Yemen, Mr. Benomar often travels to the region. “Under MbS, Riyadh has changed a lot,” he tells the Sun. “There is a lot of entertainment and sport, and many Saudis support him. On foreign policy, he shows pragmatism. He believes that Saudi Arabia and the region will be a world leader by the end of the decade.”This means that despite more than eight decades of alliance with Washington, the Saudi crown prince is now looking for other partners, including America’s foes in Moscow and Beijing, Mr. Benomar says. “A more secure and integrated Middle East benefits Americans in many ways,” an American politician wrote last year. “Its waterways are essential to global trade and the supply chains we rely on. Its energy resources are vital for mitigating the impact on global supplies of Russia’s war in Ukraine.”That American was Mr. Biden, whose opinions appeared in the Washington Post on the eve of his July Mideast fist-bumping trip to Saudi Arabia. Since then, supply chains have failed. Riyadh now limits pumping, and an oil barrel fetches more than $80. Inflation again is rising in America, and Russia is crying all the way to the bank. Arabs no longer look to America for leadership. Years of expressed and hinted-at wishes to pivot away — a slap in the face of traditional allies — and a preference for preached ideals over actual interests have turned Washington into a marginal player in the region, which ill serves America. No leaked intel is needed to see any of that.

American Interests Suffer as Biden Succeeds in Shrinking America’s Mideast Footprint

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