Trump's bet on the Middle-East: Risky or Not?

Fareed: Trump’s Risky Middle East Bet

President Trump has given a green light “to an extraordinary series of moves” in Saudi Arabia that could destabilize the country and the Middle East, Fareed writes in his latest Washington Post column. In throwing his support so firmly behind Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s strategy, Trump is taking a gamble that could suck America even further into the Middle East morass.

Mohammed bin Salman “has escalated Saudi intervention in Yemen, with bombing strikes and air, land and sea blockades. He has tried to quarantine Qatar, hoping to turn it into a submissive satellite state. He has apparently forced the Lebanese prime minister to resign, hoping to destabilize the Shiite-dominated government. All these are part of an effort to fight back against Iran’s growing regional influence,” Fareed writes.

But “the Saudi strategy does not seem to be working. The war in Yemen has turned into a disaster, creating a failed state on Saudi Arabia’s border that is seething with anger against Riyadh. Qatar has not surrendered and doesn’t seem likely to anytime soon. So far, the Shiites in Lebanon have acted responsibly, refusing to take the bait and plunge the country into civil war. But everywhere in the Middle East, tensions are rising, sectarianism is gaining ground and, with a couple of miscalculations or accidents, things could spiral out of control.”

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