US Policy in the Middle East: Breakthrough or Breakdown?

By the end of February 2014, US policy in the Middle East faced very serious challenges. Negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority had reached an impasse, and even the indefatigable efforts of US Secretary of State John Kerry had not succeeded in getting the two sides to sign an agreement or even a framework for an agreement. In the case of Iran, the United States (US) and the other members of the P-5 plus one (UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) had reached an interim agreement in November 2013, to limit Iran’s production of enriched uranium in return for a partial lifting of sanctions, but major questions remained as negotiations began on a final agreement. These included Iran’s willingness to surrender information about its suspected nuclear weaponization program; whether or not Iran would be allowed to continue to enrich uranium, and if so, how much; and the future of the Arak heavy water plant and the Fordow nuclear facility. In the case of the war in Syria, the US continued to avoid involvement, even as the death toll rose to 150,000. Despite rising calls for US action from the State Department and CIA, President Obama refused to act. His position appeared to be, “I got us out of Iraq, I’m getting us out of Afghanistan, I’m not getting us involved in Syria.”