Saudi Arabia's new king just snubbed Obama
The kingdom announced on Sunday that King Salman would not attend a summit hosted by Obama at the White House and Camp David this week as planned. Salman is reportedly sending the country's interior minister, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and the Saudi defense minister, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in his place.
Salman is reportedly planning to call Obama on Monday to discuss his decision not to attend the summit.
Arab officials told The Journal that "not enough progress had been made in narrowing differences with Washington on issues like Iran and Syria to make the Saudi ruler's trip worth it."
The snub comes as US officials try to negotiate a deal to monitor and restrict Iran's nuclear program. Obama's summit was supposed to build Arab support for the deal, which has a June 30 deadline.
Last week, The Journal reported that Middle East watchers were talking about Saudi Arabia wanting its own nuclear weapon as the country grows increasingly wary of Iran's potential. This creates the risk of a nuclear arms race in the region between Iran, a Shiite regime, and Saudi Arabia, a Sunni kingdom.
The US is attempting to play both sides of the sectarian standoff: Saudi Arabia is America's largest Arab ally in the Middle East, but the US is working in parallel with Iran-backed Shiite militias to help the Iraqi army drive the Islamic State terror group out of Iraq. These Shiite militias have been accused of committing atrocities against Sunnis in Iraq.
Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Times: "There's a growing perception at the White House that the US and Saudi Arabia are friends but not allies, while the US and Iran are allies but not friends."
With the US invested in maintaining relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia isn't counting on America alone to look out for the kingdom's interests.
But Saudi officials still can't afford to turn their backs on America entirely.
On Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Arab officials, who reportedly want a treaty that says the US would defend them if they were attacked by external forces, according to The Times. Such a deal would be difficult to reach because it would need Congressional approval.
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