Middle East Matters Most to Obama–Not Putin
The crisis in Ukraine has obscured the region where Obama has the most at stake
Michael Crowley @CrowleyTIME
4:45 PM ET
Earlier this week, Barack Obama again rejected Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign claim that Russia is America’s biggest “geopolitical foe.” In fact, Obama said, Russia is a regional power acting out of “weakness,” adding that he worries more about a mushroom cloud over New York City than he does about Vladimir Putin.
Although Putin is dangerous and nuclear terrorism is an extremely serious threat, neither one sits at the very top of his foreign policy agenda. For a clue towards what occupies the president most, look no farther than his visit Friday with the king of Saudi Arabia.
Even after Putin’s thuggish annexation of Crimea, it’s not Russia and Europe that matter most to Obama’s agenda. It’s the Middle East. Let us count the ways.
First, the Middle East is the site of Obama’s two most ambitious foreign policy projects. One is Obama’s negotiation with Iran over its nuclear program. Preventing an Iranian bomb has been a top American priority for more than a decade, while Iran has been an avowed U.S. enemy for 35 years. The outcome of the nuclear talks will impact Obama’s cherished nuclear nonproliferation agenda (refer again to his line about a nuke in Manhattan), not to mention the security of Israeli security and the entire region’s balance of power—one reason why the Saudis have been freaking out over the talks.
The second project is the effort to make peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians—which are at an especially critical point. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must decide by this weekend whether to proceed with a planned release of Palestinian prisoners; the Israeli leader is reportedly hesitant given signs that the peace process has stalled out. If Netanyahu decides not to release those prisoners, the talks couple collapse—potentially triggering for a new wave of violence and killing the prospects for a historic deal for years, possibly forever.
MORE...
http://time.com/41960/middle-east-obama-putin/