Silver Lining in the Clouds? Prospects for Trump-Putin Cooperation in the Middle East
The overall improvement in U.S.-Russian relations that the new Trump administration envisioned has not materialized as Washington and Moscow continue to disagree on a number of important issues.
Traditional Russian wooden dolls depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald J. Trump are displayed for sale at a souvenir shop in St. Petersburg, Russia, Jan. 20. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Executive Summary
The overall improvement in U.S.-Russian relations that the new Trump administration envisioned has not materialized as Washington and Moscow continue to disagree on a number of important issues such as sanctions, Crimea, eastern Ukraine, and NATO. The United States and Russia, though, do have several common interests in the Middle East. Both oppose the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, and both have good relations with most Middle Eastern governments. Still, differing Russian and U.S. attitudes toward Iran, in particular, will serve to limit – but not eliminate – the degree to which they can cooperate in the region.
While on a “working visit” to Moscow, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan met June 1 with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the two leaders signed a Declaration of Strategic Partnership between Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Two weeks later, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Putin in Moscow, where...
Shortly after the beginning of the Russian military intervention in Syria in September 2015, then-U.S. President Barack Obama predicted that Moscow would soon find itself in a quagmire there. Two and a half years later, though, Russia appears to have been far more successful with far fewer of its forces in Syria than the United...
Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently been devoting considerable time and attention to diplomacy regarding the ongoing conflict in Syria. He not only met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sochi on November 22 to discuss conflict resolution efforts, he also met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad there just...
At the recent summit between Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, the two leaders signed agreements that seem to herald a new era of Saudi-Russian cooperation. With Saudi Arabia previously standoffish toward Russia due to Moscow’s cooperation with Iran to prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad...
