U.S. Sees New Egyptian Gas Fields As Key To Its New Middle Eastern Strategy

Arguably the two greatest military errors of the 100 years have been Japan’s attack on the U.S. naval base of Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. In both cases, they snapped the U.S. out of prolonged moments of introspection, and into the broader focused force for good that it and its key allies represent to many people around the world. In the Middle East, then-President Donald Trump’s comments encapsulated in his ‘Endless Wars’ commencement address to the United States Military Academy at West Point on 13 June 2020, had found resonance in the U.S.’s withdrawal from Syria (in 2019), Afghanistan (2021), and Iraq (2021), as analysed in depth in my new book on the new global oil market order. This allowed its key geopolitical rivals China and Russia to dramatically boost their presence across the region, as they had been itching to do for years without too much on-the-ground interference from Washington. Once President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine, though, it was obvious to the U.S. and other NATO members that this was just the first step in a bigger move westwards aimed at bringing all of Europe under Russian control. To stop this, not only did Ukraine need to be supplied with weapons from the U.S. and its European allies, but several of these countries needed to be provided with long-term sources of energy supplies to make up for those lost from Russia. As China and Russia at that point had significantly strengthened their alliances with the key Middle Eastern states - including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and the UAE - the U.S. needed a new point of entry back into the heart of the Middle East. Egypt was the choice, and new developments in the past few weeks underline that the U.S.’s new Middle East strategy is proceeding apace.