There is a lot going on in the ME. Saudi Arabia had a revolution. New people in charge. Turns out they hate these fanatics as much as we do. They have a lot of money and spent it on the most modern weaponry and the best trained commandos in the world.
The US, Israel, and a coalition of Arab nations are destroying all terrorist organizations in the middle east.
A minister from Saudi Arabia just paid a visit to South Korea. It most likely was an offer to take care of the NK “problem”.
Good points.
Thank God Egypt got fairly well straightened out.
“Saudi Arabia had a revolution. New people in charge.”
New people are in charge - but from the same family. In the typical Gulf Arab view, they would be foolish if they did not try to take some advantage of other peoples’ hopes for change - to play them to gain some advantage.
No doubt some policy beliefs are different, but we have to be careful about projecting our hopes onto the new guys, until they are proven at least three times over.
Definitely, they face a different situation, with Iran growing so powerful and aggressive, and the Saudi budget under such pressure. They may just need to pull in their surrogate jihadi horns for a while, and focus on protecting their own rears, until conditions improve for them.