Firefighting trips by Bolton, Pompeo to reassure allies

Editor's note: US National Security Advisor John Bolton's trip to Israel and Turkey, which is to put out the fires caused by the United States' planned withdrawal of its military from Syria, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's back-to-back visit to eight countries in the Middle East convey a clear message that Washington is hoping to form an Arabian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to better contain Iran, Liu Zhongmin, a professor in Middle East Studies at Shanghai Foreign Studies University, commented in an article for Beijing News published on Monday. Excerpts:

The focus of the Donald Trump administration's Middle East strategy is to strengthen its regional alliances to contain Iran, and Pompeo and Bolton's visits to the region were to this end.

The increasingly complex regional situation in the Middle East means the United States no longer has the ability equal to its ambition in the region as before, because of the comparative decline of its national power and influence.

Like it or not, the White House has shifted its Middle East policy from strategic dominance to tactical response.

That's why Pompeo stressed in his speech at the American University in Cairo during his visit to Egypt that the US cannot fight alone, and the US knows it cannot and should not win every war or maintain every economy. Which shows the US does not want to engage so deeply with the regional issues as before.

The Trump administration, despite its open criticism of its predecessor, has as a matter of fact continued the Barack Obama administration's strategic contraction in the Middle East.

Washington is neither interested in the rebuilding of Syria after the war, nor even concerned about the Bashar Assad administration's future. The two senior officials' visits to the region are to pacify and comfort its allies, and ask them to shoulder more responsibility, if not pay more, which few of its allies are ready to swallow.

Moreover, both Saudi Arabia and Israel are strengthening their cooperation with Russia in arms, energy and trade, which weakens the foundation of the regional alliance, and the US cannot change that easily.