Commentary

In Levantine landscapes, history is piled high. The present is layered on the remnants of the past, both modern and ancient. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. Sparkling buildings and sweeping urban highways rise up out of heaps of rubble that remain a quarter-century after the 1975-1990 civil war. Yet the crumbling...

Marshall McLuhan’s famous observation that sometimes “the medium is the message” perfectly describes the substance of last week’s US-GCC summit. The meeting itself, especially its now-confirmed annual status, is the biggest takeaway for both sides.

That US policy towards the Middle East has dramatically fluctuated over the past decade is an understatement, especially considering the sharp differences between President George W. Bush’s 2003 Iraq war and President Barack Obama’s decision not to enforce his own redlines on Syria.

Saudi Arabia is dismayed by President Obama’s Middle East policy. Its leaders feel that he does not play by the rules that have governed the Saudi-American alliance for decades: The United States provides security guarantees in return for the Persian Gulf states’ reliable stewardship of their oil reserves and support for American regional dominance.

In anticipation of UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed that Yemen’s Houthi movement would participate after receiving assurances that pro-government forces would respect a ceasefire. The warring parties have already engaged in substantive confidence-building measures, which include to stop fighting along the border with Saudi Arabia, where the Houthi rebels’ stronghold...

US President Barack Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia this week, to attend the summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, comes at a time when relations between the two countries have rarely been worse. And yet, however negatively most Americans view Saudi Arabia, the country remains an important regional ally. Obama would be wise to mend...

The US-GCC summit meeting in Saudi Arabia next Thursday should prove an important milestone in the relationship, especially since it is intended to set the precedent of an annual head- of-state level summit into the foreseeable future. Last May, US president Barack Obama invited GCC leaders to Camp David, although not all of them attended....

My visit to the UAE last week strongly reinforced for me that negative misperceptions about Gulf relations with the United States, which in fact remain very strong, are deeply felt and widespread. The sources and context of friction in the relationship are no mystery, especially persistent questions about the Obama administration’s intentions behind the nuclear...