Epstein Secrets

tional security policy. The US-Saudi relationship remains a critical element in the kingdom's foreign policy despite differences over Syria, Egypt, Bahrain, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Iran in the last year. Abdullah and Salman do not want to see further bumps in the American-Saudi partne

s; he sent an underling—former EFTA00684183 Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano—to represent the United States as the Winter Olympics in Sochi and a delegation headed by gay athletes to protest a recent Russian law banning gay "propaganda." Obama's sending Napolitano was a gratuitous snub

r, go deeper and are more complex. At their heart is Iran's interference in internal Arab affairs, particularly in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Bahrain. Although Iranian-Saudi enmity dates back many decades, it became acute after the 1979 Islamic Revolution when Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruh

also gain more leverage with the Kremlin as time goes on and as America's footprint disappears in the Middle East. When Netanyahu met with Putin in Sochi last May, he prevailed upon him not to deliver S- 300 missiles to Assad. At the time, Putin reportedly refused to comply, citing an outstanding cont

t Qatar as the only official sponsor of Islamist extremism in Syria. Having made the announcement the day after Saudi Arabia, alongside the UAE and Bahrain, withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar, Saudi is not only aiming to isolate Qatar in the Gulf, but also internationally: Any new atrocity that gets

here was only a political solution to the crisis, said the White House, and Russia had the answers. Accordingly, traditional U.S. allies flocked to Sochi to petition Putin for relief. The Saudis promised to buy $15 billion worth of Russian arms if only the Russians would temper their support for Assa

ho fear Tehran's links with Shiite Arab populations, to step up their political confrontations with Iran in countries like Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain. It seems naive to think that a political agreement can be reached to establish a post-Assad transitional process in Syria without Iran's active i

in when he travelled to the republic in 2012. The emergence of ethnic Russian jihadists poses a threat to not only the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, but also to Russia as a whole. The jihadist movement spread from the borders of the North Caucasus republics and expanded into Russia proper long