“Recalibrating” US priorities in the Middle East and the US-Saudi Arabia relationship

The famed "pivot to Asia" that President Obama promised when he took office in 2009 never came to pass, but President Biden is ready to make it a reality. Already, his administration's public statements on the Middle East have made clear that the region will no longer be the foreign policy priority that it once was. That message has been clearest, says Johns Hopkins Middle East scholar Vali Nasr, in how President Biden has approached Saudi Arabia. "The recalibration of policy with Saudi Arabia is a very powerful signal to the Kingdom that 'you need to play ball with your adversaries in the region… We're going treat you like every other country. No more special access to the Oval Office. And you need to finish the war in Yemen. And we're not going to keep funding, or supporting, the continuation of that war.'" Nasr's conversation with Ian Bremmer is part of a new episode of GZERO World.

Watch the episode: Is the US Misjudging the Middle East's Power Shifts? Vali Nasr's View