Since President Donald Trump’s decision Dec. 19 to pull US troops out of Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has intensified his rhetoric against some states that he accuses of supporting terrorist groups. Although Erdogan refrains from naming these states, most pro-government media have interpreted his words to mean the United States.

While US-bashing may be paying off as Turkey's municipal election campaign intensifies, Ankara’s worries extend beyond US support for the People’s Protection Units (YPG) — which Turkey considers a terrorist group — and other Kurdish militias in Syria. Indeed, Ankara is deeply concerned about its fast-approaching isolation after years of clumsy efforts to be a game-changer in the region. Ankara’s rhetoric had presented Turkey as a main player in the region, and positioned it against Israel and Western powers.

Since Dec. 16, the Arab League has shown signs of re-embracing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Not only states in the Levant, but also Gulf states, are re-establishing relations with Damascus. In the first years of the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, Saudi Arabia and Turkey were on the same side in supporting the toppling of the Baathist government. For example, between 2014 and 2017, Saudi Arabia was the country Erdogan visited most often.

Currently, the mainstream Turkish press (which is heavily censored) is publishing reports criticizing the role of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in Syria. Most commentators refrain from directly criticizing Saudi Arabia's funding of Syrian reconstruction projects, or the Saudi-led boycott of Turkish goods. The Turkish-Saudi feud, which peaked with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October, springs from multiple issues and is likely to worsen in the near future. But Turkish enmity in the region isn't limited to Gulf countries (though it has supported GCC-shunned Qatar), but also includes Egypt, Jordan and others. A senior Western diplomat in Ankara said, “Turkey couldn't even sustain a limited free-trade agreement with Jordan. Its military agreements with Somalia and Qatar are on shaky ground at best. It's not possible to establish good relations with many Arab states if you are quarreling with Saudi Arabia.”