Iran Press/ America: The US President Donald Trump has authorized the withdrawal of two Patriot missile systems guarding Saudi Arabia's oil facilities, accompanied by hundreds of American military troops operating them. They were deployed last September after a massive cruise missile and drone attack on the Saudi oil infrastructure as a protective measure.
Now Saudi Arabia has just two Patriot batteries, located at Prince Sultan Air Base in the middle of the Saudi desert. They are not there to protect the royal family and its economic resources, but rather the estimated 2,500 American soldiers stationed at the remote military hub. And in yet more bad news for the Saudis, two US jet fighter squadrons have just left the region, and the US Navy presence in the Persian Gulf is also being wound down.
The British magazine Spectator, referring to this issue wrote in a report: "Trump's Middle East strategy seems the beginning of the end of an oil-for-security pact between the US and Saudi Arabia that has been a lynchpin of American engagement in the region for 75 years."
The report says: After all, the sudden withdrawal of US military assets comes just weeks after Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a fiery phone call that unless OPEC cut oil production to raise prices he would be powerless to stop US lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw American troops and military hardware from the kingdom. The Saudis complied 10 days later, but because of unprecedented oversupply, and the historic lack of demand because of the coronavirus lockdowns, oil prices have failed to rebound significantly. Trump has clearly lost all patience with bin Salman and has carried through with the threat of withdrawing military support unilaterally – perhaps as one final attempt to coax the Saudis into further action on oil cuts."
The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story of the Patriot missile withdrawal, quoted a bunch of officials as saying that the Pentagon’s removal of the anti-missile batteries, as well as the other reductions, were based on assessments by some Pentagon advisers that the US now focus on China as Enemy Number 1 and Trump is no longer prioritizing the protection of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.
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