In the months following the terror attacks of September 11 2001, it became increasingly clear that Saudi Arabia was no longer fulfilling its Washington-backed leadership role in the Gulf.
Troubled by apparently widespread domestic sympathy for Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network, the Saudi royal family began to withdraw much of its support for the United States’ diplomatic and military moves, first against Afghanistan and then Iraq.
Washington’s response has been to develop relationships with the other conservative Arab Gulf states – Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman – while officially claiming that relations with Riyadh continue to be excellent.
This policy contributed greatly to the success of the US-led coalition that overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein in April. Yet the ground-work for deepening relations with these states was effectively laid in the early 1990s.
