Is the US Finally Losing Influence in the Middle East?
BY MELVIN GOODMAN
Photograph Source: Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla – Public Domain
Fifty years ago, in the wake of the October War of 1973, the United States emerged as the principal outside actor in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger conducted the peace talks between Israel and Egypt as well as between Israel and Syria, and made sure that his counterpart—Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko—was excluded from the step-by-step process. Kissinger rightfully boasted about expelling the Soviet Union from the Middle East, where no European states were important and China played no role.
Fast forward to the present, and it is the United States that is on the outside looking in. Russia was central to keeping Syrian President Bashar al-...










