As he takes over in Saudi Arabia, King Salman faces a list of foreign policy challenges that rival any a Saudi ruler has grappled with in decades.
To the immediate south, the government of impoverished Yemen collapsed even as the previous monarch lay dying. To the north, Saudi Arabia’s effort to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad of Syria instead helped create a menacing spillover, with fighters from the extremist Islamic State recently carrying out a bloody suicide bombing on the Saudi border with Iraq.
To the west, an old ally Egypt, once wobbling toward chaos, appears to be stabilizing under a new military regime, not least due to Saudi financial support estimated at a whopping $12 billion.
Most important, to the east, Iran looms as an ever-larger threat. The Islamic Republic has been steadily expanding its influence within the Shiite Muslim crescent from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, and seems on the verge of repairing its abysmal relations with the West if it can conclude a deal over its disputed nuclear program.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman led prayers for King Abdullah in Riyadh ahead of his burial Friday afternoon.
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The Saudis have long relied on the United States as their military umbrella, although that relationship soured after King Abdullah felt that President Obama was ignoring the region, or at least Saudi concerns. According to a leaked diplomatic memo, in 2008 King Abdullah urged the United States to weigh military action against Iran to “cut off the head of the snake.”
The Saudis are concerned about Washington coming to terms with Iran, and Riyadh, like Israel, relishes the split between Congress and the White House over more sanctions. And overall, their interests tend to diverge, especially when it comes to fighting Al Qaeda and other extremist organizations, which receive some of their funding from Saudi sources.
“I think the Saudis and the Americans have developed the habit of coexisting with their disagreements,” said Mr. Dakhil.
That too, was an attitude that emerged under King Abdullah and will likely endure. “The default setting for the Saudis is always the status quo,” said Mr. Rogan.
An earlier version of this article misidentified the president of Syria. He is Bashar al-Assad, not Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father and a former president.
