Iran Press/ Iran news: Saudi foreign policy has become more aggressive since Mohammed bin Salman emerged as an influential force in Saudi Arabia.
He led Saudi Arabia to a devastating war with Yemeni Ansarollah fighters; accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and close ties with Iran and imposed a stifling blockade on Qatar and promised to confront Iran throughout the Middle East.
As the analysts have stated, the young prince was a destabilizing force in the Middle East and his campaign against Yemen and Qatar ultimately failed to get its desired results, The New York Times reported.
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The prince has stepped up direct talks with the Yemenis he has been fighting for over four years, leading to a decline in attacks by both sides.
He has made gestures to ease, if not end, the stifling blockade he and his allies imposed on his tiny, wealthy neighbor, Qatar.
He has even engaged in indirect talks with Iran, trying to dampen hostility against Iran in the region.
Fuelling the shift from confrontation to negotiation, analysts say, is the sobering realization that a decades-old cornerstone of American policy in the Middle East — the understanding that the United States would defend the Saudi oil industry from foreign attacks — can no longer be taken for granted.
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Even though American and Saudi officials accused Iran of Sept. 14 attacks on the petroleum processing plants at Abqaiq and Khurais, temporarily halving Saudi Arabia’s oil production, President Trump responded with heated rhetoric but little else.
For the Saudis, the tepid response drove home the reality that despite the tens of billions of dollars they have spent on American weapons — more than $170 billion since 1973 — they could no longer count on the United States to come to their aid, at least not with the force they expected.
“I think we will look at Sept. 14 as a seminal moment in the Persian Gulf history,” said David B. Roberts, a scholar of the region at King’s College London. With the presumption shattered that the United States would protect the Saudis, Dr. Roberts said, “they realize they need to be more accommodating.”
The Yemeni war, the siege of Qatar and the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashiqchi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul severely damaged Riyadh's credibility in Washington.
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In another part of its report, the New York Times reported that the UAE, as Saudi Arabia's closest regional ally, had made its way out of Riyadh.
The UAE began withdrawing its troops from Yemen in June and left the Saudis with heavy fighting, the newspaper said. The Emirates hosted talks with Iran on maritime security in July. It was an attempt to reduce tensions in the Persian Gulf and maintain its credibility as secure trading hub.205
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