The former US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, said that the Ukrainian crisis highlighted a cruel irony in US foreign policy towards the Middle East.

And he mentioned in an article - published by the magazine "Foreign Affairs" - that the administration of US President Joe Biden woke up to an unpleasant reality in the Middle East, which was that its allies and partners in the region had shown an unwillingness to take a position against Russia in the raging crisis with the West. Although they are indebted to the United States and sympathize with Ukraine.

Indyk - a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York - believes that these positions reflect the extent of the change that has occurred in the Middle East due to the decision taken by former President Barack Obama, adopted by President Donald Trump, and currently implemented by Joe Biden;

of placing the region at the bottom of Washington's foreign policy priority list.

The author of the article - who previously served as the US special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations - believes that the United States must now adapt to the consequences of that decision, which has reduced the hopes that its partners in the Middle East have been placing on it.

Reluctance of the closest allies

To see how much things have changed, one has to look no further than Washington's closest ally in the Middle East, Israel;

In mid-January, the United States and Israel held a round of "strategic" consultations, which focused on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

However, at a time when the Biden administration is doing its best to counteract Moscow's pressure tactics on Kiev, the statement summarizing what took place in that meeting made no mention of Ukraine.

And since Russia began massing its forces on Ukraine's borders last fall, "Israel has remained definitively silent, except for an offer made by its Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, which was categorically rejected by Moscow."

In his article, Indyk indicated that among the issues that Biden discussed with Bennett in a phone call between them earlier this month was the issue of Ukraine, and the statement issued by the White House after that call included the United States' renewal of its strong commitment to Israel's security, but it did not mention the security of Israel. Ukraine.

According to the article, Israel maintains close relations with Ukraine, which has a Jewish community that is among the largest in the world, with an estimated number of 300,000 people, and even the current Ukrainian president himself is Jewish.


The reaction of the rest of the allies

And Indyk - who previously worked as assistant to the US Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs - moved to talk about the rest of Washington's allies in the Middle East, starting with Kuwait, about which he said that it continued to support America's priorities in the region and elsewhere in the world.

Among all the countries in the region - the writer adds - Kuwait must be very sensitive to the risks facing the international community, but the joint statement issued after the meeting between Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed bin Nasser Al-Sabah and his American counterpart Anthony Blinken did not include a reference to the crisis. Ukrainian.

The Egyptian position on confronting the West with Russia did not differ much.

Egypt - which is an old strategic ally of the United States and the beneficiary of its great aid to it - also buys weapons from Russia and needs its cooperation to maintain the stability of its neighbor Libya.

Indyk believes that Egypt is not interested in taking a position against Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine, especially after the Biden administration's decision to suspend $130 million in aid to Cairo on the pretext of the Egyptian regime's reluctance to grant its citizens greater freedoms.

In that sense - and the talk is still for Indyk - the "authoritarian" methods of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah the politician are closer to those pursued by Putin than the democratic values ​​that the Biden administration is desperately trying to persuade Egypt to adopt.

As for Saudi Arabia, it has deep relations and was in the past a "loyal" ally in efforts to contain Soviet communism in the greater Middle East, as Indyk put it.

On its position on the Ukrainian crisis, the former US ambassador to Israel said that the Saudis are not cooperating, "at least for now." He added that the Ukraine crisis had raised oil prices above $90 a barrel, and it is expected to reach $120 if Russia invades Ukraine.

The author of the article describes the price hike in this way as bad news for Biden in his efforts to curb inflation in the US economy before the mid-term congressional elections scheduled for the end of this year.

It seems that Saudi Arabia - in Indyk's view - is indifferent to the calls made by the American ally;

In the past, Saudi Arabia did not hesitate to stand by its ally in times of need.

He pointed out that that bond collapsed in September 2019 when Saudi oil facilities in Abqaiq were attacked by Iranian drones and missiles, which caused Riyadh to lose half of its oil production.

Rather than rushing to the defense of Saudi Arabia, then-President Donald Trump "hipped off" before suggesting that the attack was on Saudi Arabia, not the United States.

As this American tendency to deflation from the Middle East has been growing over the past decade, and because the region's leaders have long been sensitive to shifts in the balance of power, they have been looking for alternatives to ensure their security for a period of time.

It was that Russia quickly intervened militarily in the Syrian war in 2015 to help the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and at that time the United States was seeking to change the regimes in Egypt, Libya and Syria.

"The Arab leaders in the region have noticed the contrast (between the Russian and American positions). Russia has become a de-facto power in the Middle East, while the United States appears to be the destabilizing force."

Over time, Arab leaders became comfortable with a "hedge (or take cover) strategy involving warmer relations with Russia."

Perhaps the general silence in all those countries towards the Ukrainian crisis indicates - according to the Foreign Affairs article - a lot regarding the political geography of the Middle East.

Russia has become a player in the region and fills - albeit partially - the void left by the United States by abandoning it. Indeed, in the eyes of some of America's allies, Moscow seems more trustworthy than Washington.

The writer concludes that America should ease its pressure on Saudi Arabia and the UAE to end the war in Yemen, and perhaps make room to support their efforts to deter the aggression of the Iranian-backed Houthi group.

Although Washington has limited its interests in the region, the geopolitics necessitates that the Biden administration adopt a new realism;

Whatever good intentions Washington has towards the Middle East, its interests there take priority day after day over spreading its values, as Indyk believes in the conclusion of his article.