Steven A. Cook is a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His latest book, The End of Ambition: America’s Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East, will be published in June 2024.
US President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrive for the family photo during the Jeddah Security and Development Summit (GCC+3) at a hotel in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on July 16, 2022.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan's King Abdullah II, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi talk to delegates during the Arab League's Summit for Jerusalem in Cairo, on Feb. 12, 2023.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves as he sits inside a car with his wife Emine Erdogan as a European flag is reflected on the car window after disembarking at Berlin's Tegel airport for his three-day official visit to Germany, on September 27, 2018.
An Israeli soldier wearing a patch on the back of his flack jacket showing Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a target, stands in front of a self-propelled artillery howitzer in Upper Galilee in northern Israel, as an artillery unit shells southern Lebanon on January 4, 2024.
A grab from handout footage released by Yemen's Huthi Ansarullah Media Centre on November 19, 2023, reportedly shows members of the rebel group during the capture of an Israel-linked cargo vessel at an undefined location in the Red Sea.
Israeli military vehicles drive near the border with the Gaza Strip on Dec. 6 as black smoke rises in the Palestinian territory amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) shakes hands with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani following their meeting in Qatar’s capital city of Doha on Oct. 13.
Signs with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s face and the slogan “Long live Egypt” are seen along a road outside Cairo International Airport on May 13.
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