As if the Middle East wasn’t engulfed in enough turmoil, the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Thursday probably couldn’t have come at a worse time.
By Saudi standards, Abdullah was a moderate. His successor and half-brother, Salman, isn’t expected to be different. But at 79, in ill health and reportedly suffering from dementia, his may not be a long reign.
For all Abdullah’s limited reforms — e.g., allowing women to vote and run for office in municipal elections — the king reigned over one of the world’s most repressive societies.
But say this for the man: He had a much keener understanding of the threats in the region than does President Obama.
Last September, the president declared Yemen, on Saudi Arabia’s southern border, a “success story” that justified his grand counter-terrorism strategy. On the day Abdullah died, Yemen’s government fell to Iran-backed Shiites from the Houthi tribe.
Obama is also eager for a dubious nuclear deal with Iran, apparently willing to let Tehran become the dominant regional power in hopes the mullahs will cooperate against ISIS and other jihadists. Abdullah saw Iran as an existential threat to Saudi.
And where the president has muddled through one Egypt policy after another, the Saudis recognized from the start the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood. Ditto for Obama’s shifting policies in Syria.
We’re all for going faster and further on Saudi Arabian reform than King Abdullah ever did. But the path to reform lies through a more stable region.
Because no Saudi government is going to lighten up when it has threats all around it and an unreliable America behind it.