Now it is Putin who invites Bashar al-Assad to Sochi, and chats to the presidents of Iran and Turkey, and whose army remains in Syria, and remains a good friend of President-Field Marshal al-Sissi of Egypt
Time was when a mere statement from a secretary of state – let alone a US president – would have the phones jangling across the Middle East. The Reagans, Clintons, Bushes or Obamas of this world actually did have an effect on the region, albeit often malign, US leaders being poorly briefed and always in awe of Israel (not to mention its power to destroy political lives in Washington). But today, who is calling the shots across the old Ottoman Empire?
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Update: How Obama and Trump Left a Vacuum in the Middle East (Shalom Lipner, Politico)
WNU Editor: For as long as I can remember .... US foreign policy in the Middle East was based on one thing .... the safe extraction and transport of oil. Nothing less and nothing more. But we now live in a different world, and I would say that there are two events that have changed this commitment and policy .... (1) the disaster of the Iraq war, and (2) the shale oil revolution and the push for renewable energy resources that has made the U.S. less dependent on Middle Eastern oil supplies. Robert Fisk says that US foreign policy in the Middle East doesn’t exist anymore .... I say that the U.S. not wanting to commit to a deeper involvement in the Middle East is its foreign policy, and who would blame them
