America (Washington Insider Magazine) -It’s no secret that the Middle East has had to endure America’s inconsistent foreign policy over the past couple of decades. Now, as President Joe Biden is trying to renegotiate President Donald Trump’s renegotiation of President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, many countries in the region are feeling the effects.
In fact, the United Arab Emirates — after years of the contrary — is now making an attempt to control its own long-standing tensions with Iran. This sudden move towards intra-regional diplomacy suggests that some countries in the Middle East may be taking steps to safeguard their future.
Because of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, many US allies in the Middle East are wondering about their own political futures. During a Q&A at Bahrain’s International Institute for Strategic Studies conference, Farhad Alaaldin, chairperson of the Iraq Advisory Council, told US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that “[America’s] partners on the scene are worried, and some of them are starting to run for cover.”
Indeed, US allies in the Middle East fear a complete American extraction from the region. Because America has had a continuous presence in the Middle East for the past two decades, many are worried about the potential ramification of a full American extraction.
The Biden administration has previously voiced a desire to extract the United States from the Middle East entirely, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying that he imagined the new administration doing “less not more” in the region. However, Defense Secretary Austin assured Alaaldin — along with the rest of the conference panel — that America would not be abandoning their allies in the Middle East, saying “we’re not going to abandon these interests going forward.”
In fact, White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and Biden’s Iran envoy Robert Malley attended alongside Austin in an effort to reach out to allies in the region. However, it’s likely that the gesture didn’t do much to assuage regional worry. Nonetheless, Austin committed the Biden administration to future action, stating that the country is “committed to a diplomatic outcome of the nuclear issue.”
At any rate, Brian Katulis — a vice president at the Middle East Institute — described Biden’s Middle East administrative policy as “treading water,” adding that the region’s inherent turbulence can sometimes make it “all but impossible to keep afloat.” Certainly, America’s withdrawal from the Middle East could decide the political future of both the region and the world.
