http://lobelog.com/washington-riyadh-chill-the-sequel/#more-33973

Washington-Riyadh Chill: The Sequel

by Thomas W. Lippman
After three months on the road, I returned to work on the eve of President Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia to discover that in my absence the decades-long strategic partnership between the kingdom and the United States had vaporized. It had passed into history, finito, kaput, done.
I know that happened because that was the tenor of almost all the coverage of Obama’s trip in the mainstream media. Conventional wisdom, that inevitable guest at every Washington gathering, had taken over the discussion of the bilateral relationship.
In essence, the conventional wisdom held that the Saudis have moved on because they don’t like or trust Obama. For his part, Obama is happy to see the Saudis go because he doesn’t think highly of them and in any case is more interested in pursuing a new relationship with Iran. Obama and King Salman might go through the motions of friendship, the news coverage said, but the relationship could not survive the Iran nuclear deal, Obama’s policy in Syria, the 9/11 lawsuit legislation in Congress, or the new reality of the oil market. http://lobelog.com/washington-riyadh-chill-the-sequel/#more-33973