US withdraws missiles from the Middle East: causes and consequences in the context of world politics
The United States continues to withdraw troops and military equipment from the Middle East. Among the withdrawn equipment - and Patriot missile systems. Moreover, interestingly, the troops are being withdrawn not only from Syria and Iraq, but also, for example, from Saudi Arabia, which is an important military and political partner of the United States in the Arab East.
The withdrawal of troops from Western Asia: the main reasons
Naturally, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan caused a heated debate on the topic that the United States is leaving the region to the mercy of Iran's aggressive policy. Moreover, the United States and Iran are currently trying to find ways to resume the nuclear deal, which was abandoned by the administration of the previous US President Donald Trump.
As you know, Iran is a key geopolitical rival of Saudi Arabia, with which it confronted in many regional conflicts - in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria. Attack drones Yemeni Houthis to Saudi oil facilities in 2019 led to the deployment of American missile systems in Saudi Arabia to support the country's air defense forces.
According to the American military expert Edward Erickson, professor of military stories Department of Military Studies, Marine Corps University, the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and other countries in the region is a way of a positive political signal to Iran to reduce tensions between the two countries. In this way, the Americans want to grope for the possibility of reestablishing a nuclear deal with Tehran. Moreover, the deployment of missiles in 2019 was never seen in Washington as a permanent military presence in Saudi Arabia.
In addition, there is another interesting nuance: Erickson himself admits that the Patriot and THAAD missile systems are useless against drones and cruise missiles, which are used by the Houthis in their attacks on Saudi Arabian targets.
Normalizing relations with Iran or redirecting missiles to China?
Biden’s cabinet seems to have taken a course to continue the policy of Barack Obama, who sought to generally reduce tensions in the Middle East through the normalization of relations with Iran. For example, the United States announced the end of participation in operations against the Houthis in Yemen and called on Saudi Arabia and the Houthis for a truce.
The Saudis themselves, reminds the publicist Murat Sofioglu, also entered into negotiations with Iran over the normalization of relations, since without the support of the United States, Saudi Arabia will not be able to withstand the confrontation with the Islamic republic. In this context, there may be some relaxation in relations between Israel and Iran, since Benjamin Netanyahu, who is sharply opposed to Tehran, yielded the prime minister's chair to Naftali Bennett, who demonstrates a somewhat softer position.
Finally, the removal of American missiles from Saudi Arabia may also indicate that Washington and Riyadh are well aware that Iran is not going to attack Saudi Arabia. After all, religious politics is one thing, but direct military confrontation is quite another.
Also, the withdrawal of missiles may be associated with a general reorientation of American attention towards threats from China. The consequences in the context of world politics are the growing tension in relations with Beijing.
We must keep in mind that the number of American Patriots and THAAD is limited, and we need them in the Pacific against China and North Korea,
- emphasizes Erickson.
Confronting China, Russia and North Korea is currently strategically more important for the United States than getting involved in regional conflicts in the Middle East, since everyone understands perfectly well that Iran in reality cannot threaten the global interests of the United States, unlike China itself.
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