Freddie Ponton21st Century Wire
A U.S. military operation in the Gulf has just been stopped in its tracks by one of Washington’s closest Arab partners. According toNBC News,Donald Trumphalted the mission to escort ships through theStrait of HormuzafterSaudi Arabiasuspended the U.S. military’s ability to use its bases and airspace for the operation, forcing a retreat that exposed a fracture few in Washington like to name.
Regional and specialist outlets later echoed the same account, describing a Saudi restriction on U.S. access toPrince Sultan Air Base, along with the loss of overflight rights that the mission reliedon. Riyadh was telling the United States that Saudi territory could no longer be treated as an automatic platform for a war the kingdom did not choose.
IMAGE: A damaged E-3 Sentry plane after a strike on Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base (Source: Asia Times)
That is the real story behind the collapse of what Trump had branded “Project Freedom.” For decades, Washington assumed Gulf monarchies might complain in private, but would still facilitate U.S. operations against regional adversaries, especiallyIran, when the moment came. This week suggests that assumptions can no longer be taken for granted.Saudi Arabiaappears to have drawn a line, offering the clearest sign yet that Gulf states want to keep the American security umbrella while stripping Washington of the right to use it however it pleases.
The Saudi move carried weight because it cut into the operation itself.NBC’s reportsaid access to Saudi airspace andPrince Sultan Air Basewas central to the U.S. plan, because regional military aircraft andoverflight routeswere essential to any mission designed to protect shipping in the Strait. The operation was also unfolding inside a far largermilitary surge. By April, the United States had assembled a regional armada withcarrier groups, destroyers, bomber support and thousands of troops in what reporting described as the biggest build-up in the area since theIraq invasion.
Washington sold the mission asmaritime security. Tehran, and many across the region, saw something much closer to acoercive blockadeimposed under another name, a move Iran treated as a breach of theceasefireand a fresh attempt to dictate the terms of trade and transit in one of the world’s most sensitive waterways. Once Saudi Arabia pulled access to the infrastructure the plan relied on, Trump was left retreating from an operation that had barely lasted more than a day.
IMAGE: USS Abraham Lincoln on Full Alert in the Arabian Sea (Source: Militray Aviation)
Riyadh did not arrive at that point in a single leap. Saudi Arabia has spent months trying to avoid being dragged into a direct U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Earlier in the year, reporting fromReutersand Gulf-based media showed that the kingdom had already assured Tehran that Saudi land, waters and airspace would not be used for military action against Iran. Even so, Saudi policy moved through several stages before it reached an outright veto. In March, as repeated Iranian strikes made Prince Sultan more dangerous, Riyadh reportedly openedKing Fahd Air BaseinTaifto U.S. forces as a safer western alternative, an attempt to keep Washington satisfied while reducing exposure closer to the Gulf.
What happened later over Prince Sultan and Saudi airspace reads less like a sudden break than the moment the kingdom concluded there was no workable way to keep servicing American escalation from its own soil.
Source: 21st Century Wire
