The Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, have cozied up to Israel in a seeming reversal of their past support for Palestinian rights. It is also a sign that the Gulf states have learnt not to put all their eggs in one basket, following strained relations with the US over the latter’s unreliability, wrote RSIS Senior Fellow James Dorsey in an analysis. For instance, US has proven to be an unreliable ally when the chips are down. This has persuaded the UAE and other smaller Gulf states to reach out to Iran to ensure that their critical national infrastructure does not become a target in any future major US-Iranian military conflagration.

…Dr. James M. Dorsey, a non-resident Senior Associate at the BESA Center, is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture.