The nature and dynamism of the alliance between the USA and Saudi Arab could be gauged from the simple fact that with avowed aim to help the US president Barrack Obama to force Russia out of Syria, Saudi Arab had also floated the “Islamic Coalition” of Sunni countries and entered into an understanding with the NATO countries to unleash a fight against Russia. But that bonhomie is missing in recent times between the two countries.

The bilateral relation has depreciated to such a level that during the recent visit of Obama to Saudi, to attend a regional summit of Gulf leaders, he was welcomed by the local governor, not by King Salman Bin Abd al-Aziz himself. In sharp contrast monarch personally welcomed the other world leaders who arrived at the summit. This action of Monarch was a major rebuff to Obama and also to the USA and its stature of being the world leader.

Saudi hardened its posture towards USA and particularly towards Obama just after USA refashioning its relations with the Iran. US entered into nuclear deal and agreed to lift sanctions against Iran. The implementation of the nuclear deal was a landmark achievement.

Washington had been working on the modalities of US president’s visit to Saudi with the hope that Monarch would cool down and Obama on his last visit to Saudi as the President would succeed in assuaging his feelings by clarifying US stand on Iran and other issues like the civil war in Syria. Ever since Arab Spring, the Saudi monarch has been pressuring Obama administration to launch a decisive action against Syrian president Assad and throw him out of the country. But Obama did not respond in a positive manner, instead he took his own time.

In fact Russia outwitting USA in Syria and emerging as the global face of anti-terrorist action and extending full support to Assad, made Saudi jittery. This made Saudi nurse the view that America was simply interested in using Saudi support for achieving its goal and did not believe in reciprocal gesture. This stand of US was also interpreted as giving too much credence to the Shia Muslims. The war in Syria began much earlier. Actually the conflict began in the year 632 with the death of the Prophet Mohamed. The same is true of the violence, tension or oppression currently gripping the Muslim world from Iraq and Iran, though Egypt, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Shia and Sunni Muslims are not on the same page on the issue of Islamic terrorism and fighting it out. About the conflict in the Middle East the Sunni Muslims are opposed to the stand of Shia Muslims. In many Muslim countries, the Sunni and the Shia are head-to-head. The division between Sunni and Shia Muslims is the oldest in the Middle East and unfortunately it is shaping the destiny of this troubled region as thousands from both sides pour into Syria. Al-Qa'ida volunteers on the Sunni side and Hezbollah militants on the Shia, are joining the transnational civil war between the two factions.

In most Muslim countries the Shias are in minorities. But in Iraq, Iran, Bahrain and Azerbaijan they outnumber their co-religionists. However in Syria a Sunni majority, nearly 74 per cent of the population is ruled by a Shia minority. President Bashar al-Assad and most of his army officer elite are Shia. That situation is opposite of Iraq under Saddam, where a Sunni strongman lorded it over a Shia majority. The western world always used one sect against other. British colonialists in Iraq in the 1920s used Sunni army officers to suppress a Shia rebellion, paving the way for Saddam's Sunni minority rule.

The invasion of Iraq instigated by George Bush and Tony Blair in 2003 was the second big factor in the deterioration of Sunni-Shia relations. The US had backed Saddam in Iraq's war with Iran throughout the 1980s, in which half a million troops died. The matter of fact is Sunni and Shia are locked in conflict all across the Shia Crescent. Sunni-Shia tensions are on the rise in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Egypt, and even in London as issues of identity, rights, interests and enfranchisement find sectarian expression.

Though a number of reasons are being cited for the trust deficit and crisis between USA and Saudi, the main element has been the trepidation of Saudi losing the status of being the uncrowned leader of the Muslim world, particularly of the Sunnis. The drubbing in Syria has unnerved the Saudi Monarch of losing his moral authority. Convinced that the US is not really committed to ending the Syrian conflict, the Saudis are forging their own alliances, with the Sunni leadership in Turkey and with Sunni militias on the battlefield. Saudi Arabia remains officially a member of the US-led anti-Islamic State (IS) alliance and its warplanes were recently deployed to southern Turkey.

Saudi is scared of Sunnis losing their faith in it. It also nurses the feeling that Obama has displayed a complete lack of leadership in the region. In fact he is a follower. This is not the first awkward moment in the over 70-year-old U.S.-Saudi alliance. Relations turned sour when Washington refused to protect the regime of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian dictator, when he was threatened by mass protests. During Obama’s tenure, there has been distrust and disagreement over how to contain Iran, the fight against the Islamic State, the future of Syria and clashes in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia, home to the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina, claims de facto supremacy in the Islamic world of Sunni Islam. The Saudi Sunni is for ultra-conservative Wahhabism. The Taliban derive from Wahhabism with the aid of Saudi-financed religious instruction. The Gulf Emirates and Kuwait also adhere to the Sunni Wahhabism of the Saudis, as does the Emir of Qatar.

While Saudi has been reiterating its commitment to fight and eradicate Islamic terrorism, the fact is it has been promoting and protecting these elements throughout the globe. Taliban to Al Queda to ISIS, all have been getting help from Saudi. The U.S. has helped Saudi Arabia, a Sunni-dominated state, to obtain weapons to deter Iran, a Shiite country. More recently, the Saudis have sought intelligence assistance and training, and the U.S. has given the Saudis logistical support for their war in Yemen.

The Obama administration is stonewalling the anti-Saudi sentiments that are spreading fast in western countries. It has promised to veto a piece of legislation that would allow American victims of 9/11 to sue the Saudi government. However people have started putting question; Why Does the U.S. Support a Country which was founded on terrorism?

While USA does not intend to lose out Saudi, it is also scared of alienating the Shia Muslims. True enough the US is busy doing balancing act and this is disliked by Saudi king. The U.S. has lost ground in the fight against Islamic extremism. A former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said; 'Unfortunately, we have lost ground over time. The scope of the ideological movement, the geographic dispersion of Islamic extremism, the number of terror attacks, the number of people swearing allegiance, and the ground they hold have all increased'. (IPA Service)