It's no secret that the Saud's don't like Biden (except to Biden) and that the current admin's continuous fluctuation between annoyance over a Saudi prince's actions several years ago and desperate begging for more energy production has done more to drive Saudi Arabia out of the American sphere of influence than any foreign government could dream.

Backing up a bit, sometime under Trump a Saud Price had a critical journalist whacked in a typical royal ordering the death of dissenters type fashion. Normally this would be a nothing story, but Trump and somehow this would cause WW3, blah blah blah.

Fast forward to the election and one of Biden's poorly reflected and worded statement that he would "hold bully's like the Saudi prince accountable for their actions." That's why when Biden went to Saudi Arabia it was a big deal that he got to lecture that Saudi prince (he didn't) and have the prince "apologize" (he didn't) and also extract concessions from OPEC countries using that kerfuffle as leverage (Biden didn't and OPEC didn't).

When Biden came back from that trip acting like George Bush on an aircraft carrier and a big "Mission Accomplished" (it wasn't) behind him, it rightfully peeved the Saud's, who had made no apologies and no concessions. Further, continued acrimony between the Biden's and Saudi's grew further as Washington became more and more demanding. Which brings me to the next issue for US-SA relations.

Remember that terrible Iran - Nuclear deal that was floated under Obama and temporarily repeated under Biden? Yeah, super pissed off Saudi Arabia. The Middle East has three tent poles of power. Iran (maybe nuclear), Israel (definitely nuclear), Saudi Arabia (not nuclear). Notice how one of the places does not have a nuclear policy? The Saudi's did, and did not like it.

The Iran deal is dead(ish) now, except to Europe. It underscored a central issue to Saudi Arabia however. The security blanket that the Americans one time provided is no longer there. And facing a wider world in which others would be very interested in your resources, as well as taking immediate notice of the poor quality of SA's military, the royal family came to the conclusion that it needs something more to keep the wolves at bay. Which is not wrong. Iran is doing whatever it can to destabilize SA's southern frontier with Yemen, and Israel continues to undermine Saudi geopolitical objectives in the region without consequence.

Bringing this to Hamas and SA, Hamas has always had close connections to Saudi Arabia. For a while SA had to be quiet about their support, especially as Trump endeavored to unite SA and Israel against Iran. Which was successful for a minute, but Biden fudged all that up by trying to reignite the Nuclear deal with Iran.

We are pretty much back to status quo with the Middle East now, after the slight Trump break. I'd expect to see places like Syria get a bit hotter in the near future, as well as the problem areas of Israel and Iraq. The biggest player to take notice will be Iran and, not wanting to be out-paced, they'll conduct their own "meetings" with their own terror cells. Israel won't be happy with either development, but they are focused a bit internally at the moment to worry about Muslim movements in the short term.

It's no secret that the Saud's don't like Biden (except to Biden) and that the current admin's continuous fluctuation between annoyance over a Saudi prince's actions several years ago and desperate begging for more energy production has done more to drive Saudi Arabia out of the American sphere of influence than any foreign government could dream.

Backing up a bit, sometime under Trump a Saud Price had a critical journalist whacked in a typical royal ordering the death of dissenters type fashion. Normally this would be a nothing story, but Trump and somehow this would cause WW3, blah blah blah.

Fast forward to the election and one of Biden's poorly reflected and worded statement that he would "hold bully's like the Saudi prince accountable for their actions." That's why when Biden went to Saudi Arabia it was a big deal that he got to lecture that Saudi prince (he didn't) and have the prince "apologize" (he didn't) and also extract concessions from OPEC countries using that kerfuffle as leverage (Biden didn't and OPEC didn't).

When Biden came back from that trip acting like George Bush on an aircraft carrier and a big "Mission Accomplished" (it wasn't) behind him, it rightfully peeved the Saud's, who had made no apologies and no concessions. Further, continued acrimony between the Biden's and Saudi's grew further as Washington became more and more demanding. Which brings me to the next issue for US-SA relations.

Remember that terrible Iran - Nuclear deal that was floated under Obama and temporarily repeated under Biden? Yeah, super pissed off Saudi Arabia. The Middle East has three tent poles of power. Iran (maybe nuclear), Israel (definitely nuclear), Saudi Arabia (not nuclear). Notice how one of the places does not have a nuclear policy? The Saudi's did, and did not like it.

The Iran deal is dead(ish) now, except to Europe. It underscored a central issue to Saudi Arabia however. The security blanket that the Americans one time provided is no longer there. And facing a wider world in which others would be very interested in your resources, as well as taking immediate notice of the poor quality of SA's military, the royal family came to the conclusion that it needs something more to keep the wolves at bay. Which is not wrong. Iran is doing whatever it can to destabilize SA's southern frontier with Yemen, and Israel continues to undermine Saudi geopolitical objectives in the region without consequence.

Bringing this to Hamas and SA, Hamas has always had close connections to Saudi Arabia. For a while SA had to be quiet about their support, especially as Trump endeavored to unite SA and Israel against Iran. Which was successful for a minute, but Biden fudged all that up by trying to reignite the Nuclear deal with Iran.

We are pretty much back to status quo with the Middle East now, after a slight break. I'd expect to see places like Syria get a bit hotter, as well as Israel and parts of Iraq. The biggest player to take notice will be Iran and not wanting to be out-paced, they'll conduct their own meetings with their own terror cells. Israel won't be happy with either, bit they are focused a bit internally at the moment to worry about Muslim movements in the short term.