In a dramatic move even by his own mercurial standards, Donald Trump has authorised 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 – blamed on the Iranians but claimed by their allies the Houthi rebels in Yemen – that knocked about half of the kingdom’s production capacity offline.
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.
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of an oil-for-security pact between the US and Saudi Arabia?
Are we witnessing 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, but especially so since the 1979 Iranian revolution? Given Trump’s habit of changing his mind from one minute to the next, not least when it comes to his Middle East strategy, one cannot be certain, but at this stage, it certainly looks that way.
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...
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