As ISIS continues its conquest of territory with the help of Turkey, it’s having the effect of surrounding Saudi Arabia in Alamo-esque fashion. To say the Saudis are looking over their shoulder would be an understatement. Their heads are on a collective swivel.

In his now infamous speech that included the lie, “ISIL is not Islamic”, Barack Obama said something else that may turn out to be just as absurd. He touted American success in fighting terrorism in Yemen.

This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.

Today, Yemen is on the brink of falling to al-Qaeda after Shia rebels took the Yemeni Capitol of Sanaa last month (h/t BNI):

In Iraq, another place that increasingly highlights Obama’s mishandling of events, the non-Islamic ISIS is on the brink of laying siege to Baghdad, which currently has a primarily shia government that has been using Shia militias to repel ISIS. As Patrick Poole points out, just a few months ago, the notion that Baghdad would fall to ISIS was perceived as an impossibility by the elites who have been consistently wrong about everything since the Arab Spring began.

Today, the fortification of Baghdad is in much more doubt, as evidenced by the U.S. Army’s top General:

While speaking to a an annual conference at the Association of the United States Army on Monday, the nation’s top Army general, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno, was asked to gauge his level of confidence in the Iraqi Security Forces’ ability to defend the city of Baghdad from the ISIS onslaught. Odierno inspired the confidence of legions when he replied, “somewhat.”

“I believe the capability is there to defend Baghdad,” he continued, according to a report in The Hill. “But we’ll have to see what plays out over the coming days.”

Here is a news report about terror attacks on Shia neighborhoods in Baghdad by ISIS:

Of course, none of this precludes the horse trading between Turkey and Iran. Earlier this month, Shoebat.com reported on the coming ISIS invasion of Syria and Iraq. This ultimately serves Turkey’s interests but also Iran’s. The country that it puts in an increasingly more precarious position is Saudi Arabia:

Therefore, we will begin to see the rift between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The only way to introduce the grand Caliphate that will be acceptable and palatable by the Muslim world both secular and religious is to introduce the non-Wahhabi brand of Sufi Islam, which is considered peaceful by the West. But this will unite both Shiite Iran and Sunni Turkey since Sufis respect Shiite faith and their religious icons, Hassan and Hussein. This will create a grand scale Muslim coalition (Ezekiel 38) and will dismantle what Syches Picot accord did in fracturing the Ottoman Empire.

One look at a map shows that Saudi Arabia is being surrounded by enemies that want its fall. Iraq borders Saudi Arabia to the northeast and if ISIS takes Baghdad, it will have just gained an incredibly strategic advantage against the Saudis. Turkey is funneling resources (ISIS) down into Syria and ultimately into Iraq. Bordering Saudi Arabia on the southwestern portion of the peninsula is none other than the aforementioned Yemen. The civil war that’s brewing there could sandwich the Saudis between two countries essentially controlled by ISIS.

Then, of course, just across the Persian Gulf to the east of the Saudi peninsula sits Iran, which is quickly positioning itself as a nuclear power. If there is a nation Iran has more enmity for than Israel, Saudi Arabia would be in the top two. Last year, as Shoebat.com reported, the Obama administration’s dealings with Iran over the latter’s nuclear program definitely caught the attention of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who expressed support for an Israeli strike on Iran.

Let’s also not forget Qatar, an ally of Turkey and the most concentrated hotbed of Muslim Brotherhood terrorists perhaps in the world. It harbors Hamas leaders and the Brotherhood’s spiritual head Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Not only this, but as Shoebat.com has reported on extensively, the Brookings Institute, – a prominent left-wing think tank – got in bed with Qatar in 2002 and brought a lot of high ranking politicians and dignitaries with them, through the annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum (US-IWF) led by former Bill Clinton ambassador and Brookings Vice President Martin Indyk.

Just last year, the Saudis were in support of removing Bashar al-Assad. For years, they had been working toward that very objective with the U.S., Qatar, and Turkey. As Shoebat.com has reported, evidence exists that they funded the arming of Syria’s rebels through a weapons-trafficking operation being run out of Benghazi. In addition, a document obtained by Shoebat.com appears to indicate the Saudis released hardened criminals with death sentences into Syria.

The palpable irony of Saudi schizophrenia is that in hindsight, its support for Syria’s rebels has put it in even much graver danger today. Iran’s historical alliance with Syria’s Assad has been gradually shifting over to Turkey, which is essentially conquering territory all around Saudi Arabia through ISIS, which it secretly supports (things like bombing Kurds that are being slaughtered by ISIS tends to let the cat out of the bag).

Today, the fall of Syria’s Assad would have disastrous consequences for the Saudis, who repeatedly open Pandora’s box and then wonder why it can’t be closed. Once Syria falls to ISIS, Jordan is next, which most certainly will be a quick pick-up for the Turks. At that point, not only will the Saudis be even more surrounded but ISIS will have a wide open corridor from Turkey to the Saudi peninsula.

The one perpetual monkey wrench for Turkey in all of this has been Egypt. Had its Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Mursi not fallen last year, the Saudis would have another very hostile neighbor to its west, just across the Red Sea. It’s easy to see why the Saudis have been going to great lengths to ally not just with General Abdel Fatah el-Sisi but also Israel. During the fighting between Hamas and Israel in Gaza this past summer, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were seen as giving tacit support to Israel’s efforts.

The Saudis supported the removal of Mursi last year and have been aligned with el-Sisi ever since. There were even reports that it funded the ouster. Again, this is particularly schizophrenic because the Saudis have been funding the Muslim Brotherhood all over the world – to include inside the U.S. – for decades.

El-Sisi and the Saudis see a gathering storm and understand why having Israel on their side is important. As Turkey, ISIS, and Iran rise in power, el-Sisi and the Saudis are under an ever-increasing threat. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had a burr under his saddle about Mursi’s overthrow ever since it happened. Many of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders who fled Egypt have found safe haven there. As Shoebat.com has reported, Erdogan will never be satisfied with the current government in Egypt.

Mursi’s removal so angered him that he cried on national television:

Last year, Americans were apoplectic over Obama administration support for Mursi after the latter was overthrown. Even Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham served as Obama’s emissaries when they traveled to Egypt to negotiate the release of Muslim Brotherhood leaders from jail a month after Mursi’s removal. El-Sisi didn’t budge; McCain and Graham were visibly dejected. Wanting the Muslim Brotherhood to remain in control of that country made no sense.

Had Mursi stayed in power, Saudi Arabia would be nearly completely surrounded today.

It didn’t take long for attention to be turned away from Egypt. Two weeks after McCain and Graham walked away empty-handed, a chemical weapons attack in Syria stole the headlines. It was supposed to generate sufficient political will to declare Obama’s ‘red line’ crossed so that Bashar al-Assad could be removed from power. That did not happen either. In the more than one year that has transpired since, NATO countries have continued to attempt to chip away at the Assad regime.

No doubt, the charm offensive of stealth Muslim Brotherhood agents in the U.S. has had the effect of compromising the halls of power to bend to its will. That certainly helps to explain the affinity for the Brotherhood agenda that is shared by dysfunctional and nefarious politicians. Even former U.S. President George W. Bush cheered the Arab Spring in 2012, which clearly had the effect of support for Erdogan. Again, it made no sense unless there was a desire to jump out of the Saudi frying pan into the Ottoman fire.

Erdogan meets with George W. Bush in White House.

There is perhaps something else at work too. A video we have posted before has been introduced as evidence in the trial of the Mubarak regime in Egypt. It is from 2006 and features former CIA Director James Woolsey. As you watch, ask yourself if Saudi Arabia became a long term target for the U.S. after 9/11/01. If so, perhaps making it a short term target may have been a better course because the alliances the U.S. has made since have been far less than desirable:

That video was shot in the same year that the Bush administration seemed to be reaching out to Naqshbandi Sufi Sheikh Hisham Kabbani, a protege of Naqshbandi Sheikh Nazim Kibrisi, who from a podium in 1994, called for the resurrection of the Ottoman Empire (Caliphate) with Erdogan – also of the Naqshbandi order – cheering him in the front row.

Another bit of leverage that is being removed from Saudi Arabia, if ever so incrementally, is increased oil production elsewhere.