The Washington Post online headline says:
Gulf Leaders Seek U.S. Assurances at Camp David
But of course, as most people know, that is really not the story.
The real story is that Gulf leaders, no longer trusting or respecting assurances from the United States, are boycotting President Obama’s Camp David summit for Gulf leaders.
Four out of six leaders will not show up. Their excuses are transparent, as I suspect they are intended to be. These leaders will not be giving President Obama a photo op so that he can paper over their opposition to the disastrous deal he is making with Iran. Unlike President Obama, they will have to live with the results of the Iran deal–and rather quickly at that.
Danielle Pletka writes at the AEI website:
Doubtless the White House is busy explaining away the effective boycott by Gulf leaders of President Obama’s summit at Camp David: the king of Saudi Arabia is non compos mentis; the leadership of the United Arab Emirates was never going to come anyway; the others don’t really matter, have to follow the lead of the big guys, etc. But don’t believe it. This is nothing other than a slap in the face to President Obama, and a deliberate repudiation of his Iran–first policy in the Middle East.
On the one hand, the notion of any Arab leader snubbing any president of the United States is offensive. On the other, it’s hard not to see their point of view: the United States has deliberately withdrawn from the region, and insofar as it remains, the interests of our erstwhile allies – from Israel to Saudi Arabia – are not first and foremost in the mind of this White House.
Worse yet, Gulf countries, now engaged in what they see as a pitched battle for the future of the region, see Washington doing Iran’s bidding: helping Bashar al Assad stay in power; playing middleman to Iran as it hopes to take over Yemen via proxies; providing air cover for Iranian led militias in Iraq, and more. And while some of the suspicions of the Sunni leaders in the region are overblown, sadly, many are not.
The situation is so typical of President Obama: he wants an achievement (transforming the entire medical system of the United States) but is totally oblivious or actually doesn’t care about how other people will be affected. In this instance, he wants to make a historic deal with Iran but doesn’t know or care what it will do to the rest of the region, the people who will have to live with his handiwork sooner rather than later.