Middle East turning against US, Saudi interests: Analyst

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia was aimed at finding a way to “consolidate” the shaky US-Saudi alliance, in the wake of positive changes in the region.

During his 24-hour trip to the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday, Kerry reassured the staunch US ally of their “solid relationship” following the removal of sanctions on Iran.

On January 16, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini announced that sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program had been lifted as the Iran nuclear deal went into effect.

In an interview with Press TV on Sunday, William Jones, the Washington bureau chief for the Executive Intelligence Review, said that Kerry’s visit signals his concern for the US-Saudi ties.

“Obviously he was very concerned that the Saudis who are really very independent-minded in terms of a lot of what they do, might have been getting out of the fold,” he said.

“So I think he wanted to consolidate things there as well as trying to find out what went on during the trip when President Xi was in the Middle East,” Jones said, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to the region.

The analyst then pointed to Saudi Arabia’s recently-revealed secret funding of stealth US operations in the Middle East, saying the revelation “is going to have serious reverberations in the US-Saudi relationship.”

According to a report that was published by the New York Times on Saturday, President Barack Obama’s secret mission to the CIA in 2013 to begin arming militants fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government was for the most part funded by Riyadh.

The Times cited current and former administration officials as saying that the Saudis contributed weapons and money as the CIA trained Syrian militants on AK-47 assault rifles and tank-destroying missiles.

“[This] will put a lot of pressure on the Obama administration who have been kind of playing patsy with the Saudis in this respect,” Jones said.

He further noted that the current status quo in the region is changing against the Saudi “machinations” in several aspects following the Chinese president’s tour and his willingness to build “good relations” with regional powers such as Iran.

Jones added that the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal has paved the way for Tehran to “play a major role and everybody is going there to try and both solidify economic deals and also to establish relations.”

“So things are not going so well for the Saudis and maybe John Kerry wanted to go and assure them; ‘We are still with you,’” he continued.

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