The post-American Middle East is beginning to take shape

For years, Saudi Arabia’s strategic patience was mistaken for strategic dependence. Riyadh absorbed provocations, avoided unnecessary wars, preserved its relationship with the United States, and concentrated on internal transformation and development. That restraint was never an acceptance that an American-designed regional security order would endure indefinitely.The mutual defence agreement signed in Mecca yesterday between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye shows that it will not. It brings together the three most powerful and influential countries of the Sunni Muslim world. An armed attack against one will now be regarded as an attack against all three. This is the institutional beginning of a new regional security architecture.The US-Iran war accelerated a transformation already under way. Iranian retaliatory strikes exposed the vulnerability of the US basing structure in the Gulf and forced the repositioning of substantial combat forces. Several American bases will eventually close, as they have lost strategic utility. Washington will increasingly struggle to justify the resources required to sustain the overstretched posture of an earlier era.America is not disappearing from...