Story highlights
It wasn't that long ago that Saudi Arabia and Russia were at war in Afghanistan
Russia's Putin is positioning himself as the lynchpin of the Middle East
When Donald Trump took the oath of office in January there were great expectations among many of America’s allies in the Middle East that he would be an improvement on his predecessor, someone they’d felt had gone from showing them tepid support to middling neglect.
President Barack Obama had famously “pivoted to Asia” during his time in office, shifting his focus and American resources to beefing up US presence in the Pacific to counter an ever-rising China.
Obama’s actions in office, from choosing to side with the Egyptian people over long-time ally President Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring, to the US response to state-sponsored atrocities in the Syrian conflict and the signing of the Iran nuclear deal, have all contributed to a growing unease among many US allies in the Middle East.