@jolyonGulf allies heard it straight from Amb. Tom Barrack, Trump's Middle East envoy: the arrangement where Washington stood as the world's protector since WWII is being reworked at its core. Their security, he argued, will increasingly have to come from partnerships inside the region. He held up the Saudi-Pakistan-Turkey defense partnership as the kind of diversification they should be pursuing, and all of this lands while the U.S. keeps adding military forces around Iran. Barrack was clear the country isn't walking away: "We're not leaving." Still, the bigger point wasn't subtle: "America as the guarantor to the world, for the last 80 years, it is no longer there." Reported by WSJ, written by Samuel.

@jolyonGulf allies heard it straight from Amb. Tom Barrack, Trump's Middle East envoy: the arrangement where Washington stood as the world's protector since WWII is being reworked at its core. Their security, he argued, will increasingly have to come from partnerships inside the region. He held up the Saudi-Pakistan-Turkey defense partnership as the kind of diversification they should be pursuing, and all of this lands while the U.S. keeps adding military forces around Iran. Barrack was clear the country isn't walking away: "We're not leaving." Still, the bigger point wasn't subtle: "America as the guarantor to the world, for the last 80 years, it is no longer there." Reported by WSJ, written by Samuel.