Rebalancing Power in the Middle East

Wary of alienating independent-minded Morocco, Saudi King Salman has called his North African counterpart in the hopes of righting their relations.

Perpetual threats to Iraq’s security and stability will leave it little choice but to maintain close relations with the United States, despite mounting political pressure to break away from Washington.

To appease Washington, Europe has begun upping the pressure on Iran's regional behavior and ballistic missile program -- risking its remaining influence over Tehran's nuclear activities.

A strong response by Tehran would prompt an even tougher Israeli counterstrike, and could cause a deadly escalation.

Germany, France and the United Kingdom will be the primary backers of the trade channel with Iran known as INSTEX. The United States, however, has already threatened to sanction it.

With Syria's current government staying put, the rest of the Arab world is realizing it might be better to work with Bashar al Assad rather than against him.

The traditionally hard-line Islamist kingdom has been encouraging citizens to identify more strongly with their geographic location, and it has even shown signs of increasing tolerance for other religious faiths.

An unconfirmed report suggests Kurdish forces will return to Kirkuk, indicating a potential improvement in relations between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Following two years of tumult on the world stage, the desert kingdom isn't altering its foreign policy goals -- just the way it goes about attaining them.