Saudi Arabia’s decision to send its crown prince rather than its king to a summit of Gulf leaders at Camp David this week is no small snub, Bruce Riedel of Brookings argues: It was timed and orchestrated to demonstrate as much dissatisfaction as possible with President Obama’s behavior toward Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, all the Sunni Gulf states. There won’t be a public rebuke of the president, a la Benjamin Netanyahu, Riedel says, because the Saudis just don’t do that.
But the disappointment, especially over the president’s policy toward Iran, but also his apathy toward the war Sunnis are waging against Shia Iranian proxies in Yemen and the perception that he doesn’t treat the Saudis as more important than the other Gulf States, is definitely there.