Steven A. Cook is a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His latest book is The End of Ambition: America’s Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East.
The first Saudi citizen preparing to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine in the capital Riyadh on Dec. 16, 2000, as part of a vaccination campaign by the Saudi health ministry.
Democratic vice presidential candidate U.S. Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) reads an article from "USA Today" during a rally at Morrell Park October 17, 2008 in Henderson, Nevada.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participate in a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Sept. 15.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a chart of military hardware sales to Saudi Arabia as he meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office at the White House on March 20, 2018.
President Donald Trump with Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pose for a group photo with other leaders of the Muslim world during the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh on May 21, 2017.
A picture shows the U.S. embassy complex, still under construction, in the heavily fortified Green Zone, on the west bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad on Oct. 11, 2007.
Two members of Tunisia's Jewish community, one of the largest in the Arab world, light candles 09 May 2004 in the Ghriba synagogue, on the isle of Djerba, on the second day of the annual pilgrimage there.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil wave as they attend Friday prayers in Tripoli on Sept. 16, 2011.
