The Middle East has long been one of the core areas of the US hegemonic system, and only by firmly controlling the Middle East can the United States ensure that the major oil-producing countries in the Middle East use the US dollar to pay for oil, thereby consolidating the US dollar oil system, maintaining the US financial hegemony, and allowing the US dollar to easily harvest the world's wealth. As a result, successive U.S. presidents have made control of the Middle East one of the most important diplomatic approaches. But since Biden came to power, the United States has had to make a strategic contraction from the Middle East due to its national strength, focusing on the Asia-Pacific region to contain China. After the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the United States invested a lot of power in Europe and further relaxed its control over the Middle East. This has made many countries that are already dissatisfied with the United States begin to use practical actions to disintegrate the order built by the United States in the Middle East. Recently, Saudi Arabia, an ally of the United States, has made contact with Iran, the sworn enemy of the United States, without informing the United States.
U.S. control over the Middle East has declined again, and Saudi Arabia has bypassed U.S. engagement with Iran
This week, CNN reported that on April 25, local time, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that Saudi Arabia had sent a special envoy to hold high-level talks with Iran and actively discussed the Pilgrimage arrangements in Mecca, which are vital to Muslims. CNN said the talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia were attended not only by diplomats, but also by officials from intelligence and security services, at a very high level. We know that Saudi Arabia and Iran are a sworn enemy, Saudi Arabia is a Sunni believer, and Iran is a big believer in Shiites, and the two countries have long been at odds over their faith.
The two countries have since cut ties since the execution of a Shiite cleric by Sunni believers on Saudi territory and the angry storming of the Saudi embassy by Iranians. Moreover, the United States is also happy to see these two Middle East countries attack each other, which helps to strengthen the control of the United States in the Middle East, so it has been fanning the flames of contradictions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Now, however, the fact that these two countries that once regarded each other as enemies are engaging with the United States behind their backs is bound to be extremely frustrating for the United States. Because from the perspective of hegemony, the actions of Saudi Arabia and Iran actually prove that the control of the United States in the Middle East is gradually declining!
With the changes in the international situation, countries in the Middle East are trying to get rid of the control of the United States
In fact, since the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, there has been a very strong tendency throughout the Middle East to break away from U.S. control. Biden's phone calls to the saudi and EMI kings were rejected by the two heads of state, who also firmly opposed the increase in oil production, the suppression of oil prices, the exclusion of Russia from major oil-producing organizations, and neutrality in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Previously, Saudi Arabia made it clear that Saudi Arabia would take into account Russia and the United States and would not be at the mercy of the United States!
What makes the United States even more unbearable is that these two former allies who were close to the United States have openly contacted the enemies of the United States in the Middle East. In mid-March, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited the UAE and received a high-standard reception from the UAE king. Now that Saudi Arabia and Iran are beginning to look at each other, higher-level talks are likely to take place at any time, and U.S. control of the Middle East may be facing the biggest threat of the twenty-first century, which could lead to the collapse of the petrodollar system and the collapse of the U.S. hegemonic system.
The root cause of the rupture of the Relationship between the United States and the countries of the Middle East lies in interests
As to why the countries of the Middle East, which were originally like glue with the United States, suddenly oppose the United States, we have made a brief analysis in previous articles. From an economic point of view, after the shale oil and gas revolution, the United States has become an oil exporter from an oil importer and a competitor to various oil-producing countries in the Middle East; politically, in the face of the attacks of the Houthis, the United States has refused to help Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries for its own interests. In Afghanistan, the United States is watching the collapse of the pro-American regime it has fostered. In order to save its own national strength, the United States not only does not help its Middle East allies, but also grossly interferes in its internal affairs, such as interfering in the issue of Saudi arabia's succession to the throne and organizing cooperation between the United Arab Emirates and China to improve ports. The resulting resentment of the countries of the Middle East is expected. Since the United States is unwilling to fulfill its obligations as an ally, these Middle Eastern countries will naturally find their own way out.
In addition to the above reasons, israel as a middle east region of uncertainty can not be ignored. In recent years, in order to vigorously retain the United States and thus ensure its own development space in the Middle East, Israel has repeatedly violated the will of the United States and set off many rounds of "bloody storms" in the Middle East. Whether it is the Assassination of the Top Brass of the Iranian Army by the United States or the initiative to strike at military targets in other countries, Israel has forcibly tied the United States to its own chariots. In the face of irreconcilable contradictions between Israel and the countries of the Middle East, the weakening of relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia and other countries has almost become a foregone conclusion!
The hindsighted United States also wants to continue to grasp the initiative in the Situation in the Middle East through diplomatic channels
In the face of major changes in the Middle East, the United States seems to have taken note of this problem at present, and according to CNN, the US government has promised to strengthen the missile defense system for the Gulf states. Biden also nominated Michael Ratney as the new U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, a career diplomat, and if approved, Ratney would be the first career diplomat in three decades to serve as an ambassador to Saudi Arabia. But from this incident, we can also see how much the United States despises its allies in the Middle East, and none of the ambassadors stationed here in the past three decades have been career diplomats. However, the United States is now in a state of limbo, it seems that it is too late, the image of the United States in the minds of many countries in the Middle East has collapsed, the British Hudson Institute scholar Mohammed Alia said: "Arsonists running to your home is terrible, but arsonists pretending to be firefighters rush into your home is even more terrible." The implication is that the United States is a destabilizer of stability in the Middle East, not a defender.
If the United States wants to regain control of the middle east, it must spend more money and come up with more practical action. But now that the United States has to contain China and mobilize its forces to aid Ukraine, how much more power does it have to re-rally its Middle East allies? Once the Middle East is completely freed from US control, then the US hegemonic system will be at risk of complete collapse.