The Gulf's Achilles Heel

The Gulf's Achilles Heel

Mar 27, 2014 03:00 am | Frederic Wehrey

Frederic Wehrey

As President Obama meets with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on Friday he will undoubtedly offer reassurances of U.S. solidarity to the panicked kingdom. The two leaders will attempt to mend fences on the divisive regional issues of Egypt, Syria and, especially, Iran. There will public utterances of common ground and commitments to move the relationship forward. But there is another danger lurking just off the Saudi coast that Obama must raise.
The political impasse of Bahrain is a festering wound in the Gulf, the Achilles’ heel of a region that has tried to insulate itself from the forces of change buffeting the rest of the Middle East and from Iranian influence. If left unaddressed, it will eventually threaten U.S. assets and people—particularly the sprawling headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The urgency of fixing Bahrain, then, is not solely about human rights and aligning U.S. policy with U.S. values. It is about staving off an increasingly violent opposition and, potentially, malign Iranian interference.
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