LESS than two weeks before the Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel, US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan remarked that “the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades”.

He noted that he had to spend less time than any of his predecessors since 9/11 in dealing with crises in that area of the world and asserted that his goal was to “de-pressure, de-escalate and ultimately integrate the Middle East region”.

In the midst of pursuing an activist foreign policy, Sullivan could then boast about some major American diplomatic triumphs in the Middle East where the US was orchestrating the historic rapprochement of the Persian Gulf Arab states, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), with Israel.