Nikki Haley competently delivered her response to Obama’s State of the Union address, and made it as clear as possible that she lines up with the anti-Trump side of the party. Noah Millman sums this up in his latest post:
Submitted by James Stafford via OilPrice.com,
The rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran has quickly ballooned into the worst conflict in decades between the two countries.
I rarely listen to the State of the Union address. I rather incline to Thomas Jefferson’s sentiment that it flatters the institution of the Presidency, and to his decision to deliver his in writing. So, as with most of his previous addresses, I read President Obama’s last oration on the state of our union rather than listening to it in real time.
So I don’t know if it came off this way when he delivered it, but reading it I was struck by an overarching theme, that of winners and losers.
I wonder where that theme might have come from.
Having upset The Sauds (by exposing the truth about The Kingdom's subjugation of women and medieval laws), and hurt relations with Saudi Arabia, Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom has now made an enemy of another Middle-East nation. Israel has barred Wallstrom from entering their nation after she called for investigations into "extrajudicial killings" during recent violence.
Dan Drezner’s reviews the story of Iran’s brief detention of 10 U.S. sailors after they had accidentally drifted into Iranian waters, and here’s what he finds:
So, to sum up: Compared to a similar incident in 2007, this was handled much more quickly and with a minimum of fuss. It’s almost as if U.S. diplomacy toward Iran has yielded some benefits or something.