After a month of unpleasant exchanges between Washington and Riyadh, US President Barack Obama will visit Saudi Arabia on April 21 to attend a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit. In an interview in the April issue of The Atlantic, the president’s remark about US allies in the Gulf being “free riders” — for not contributing their share on the world stage — widened the rift in an already-strained relationship with Riyadh.
The remark prompted former Saudi Ambassador to Washington Prince Turki al-Faisal to write a detailed reply in which he reminded the president of a long list of Saudi contributions to regional peace. From humanitarian aid to Yemen and Syria, to fighting the Islamic State (IS) and sharing intelligence with the United States, the prince emphasized Saudi leadership contributions and credentials, debunking the president’s “free riders” comment.
Notwithstanding these unpleasant exchanges, on his visit to Riyadh, Obama will encounter a leadership totally immersed in the “audacity of hope,” determined not to share the Middle East — as Obama had hoped after the nuclear deal with Iran and had clearly expressed in his recent interview — but to emerge from the chaos that followed the Arab uprisings as the undisputed leader of the region. The American dream that has driven Obama and many others before him has met its counterpart in a Saudi dream that the leadership has been struggling to make come true.
The collision between the Saudi and American visions centers on one issue. Obama’s dream for the Middle East seems to envision the existence of multiple regional powers, all on friendly terms with the United States but without one of them dictating its will over the others. From Cairo to Tel Aviv, Ankara, Riyadh and Tehran, Obama saw a maze of competing claims and counterclaims about hegemony and control. He rightly distanced himself from all of them and pursued American national interest — which amid the chaos that engulfed the region meant that America became a distant but engaged source of support for those willing to abide by the rules of a new game.
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