The King and ISIS

The United States and Saudi Arabia disagree on many issues including a deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for an end to sanctions. “Papering over differences is one of diplomacy’s finer and more useful arts,” writes Daniel Benjamin for Foreign Policy, adding that Saudi Arabia may pose more challenges for the US than Iran does. “Saudi Arabia’s energetic propagation of Wahhabism – which began as a response to Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 – has been central to the rise of violent extremism, from Indonesia to Mali.” Yet in what Benjamin calls an “extraordinary paradox,” the United States and Saudi Arabia cooperate on counterterrorism, with the latter exposing plots on bombs hidden print cartridges and research on undetectable bombs. The two nations have different priorities: Saudi Arabia targets rebels in Yemen while the United States focuses on the Islamic State controlling territory in Syria and Iraq. – YaleGlobal