In the Middle East Trump is the proverbial boiling frog

Photo of very upset tribal elders

I think the Iranian military, which really does know what is going on Syria and Iraq, is smugly watching the Trump Administration progressively get more tangled up by conflicts in the Middle East.

If you had the patience to wend through the reports in my previous post, you came, at the end, to the story of Arab tribal leaders in al-Akidat and al-Bakareh tribes in eastern Deir Ezzur strongly opposing the dismissal of the head of the Deir Ezzur Civil Council by Kurdish militias in control of the region, who replaced him with one of their own. The leaders are so upset by this turn of events that now they're busy organizing a "popular resistance" to the U.S. forces in Syria because of said forces' support of said Kurdish militias.

But, as I noted at the very end, there's more to the situation than a cursory glance reveals. From a July 17 FARS report  (don't fidget):

[...]

Al-Watan newspaper reported that al-Jamel tribe in Eastern Deir Ezzur has issued a statement to emphasize its opposition to the appointment of SDF-affiliated Ahmed al-Khabil as the Sheikh of al-Bakir tribes in Eastern Deir Ezzur and the head of Syria's military democratic council.

Al-Jamel tribe has referred in the statement to the terrorist acts by the SDF in Eastern Euphrates region, and said that it does not recognize al-Khabil who has been appointed with the support of Saudi Minister for Persian Gulf Affairs Thamer al-Sabhan and the terrorist militias as the Emir of al-Bakir Sheikhs.

Other Syrian tribes had also earlier stressed their opposition to al-Khabil's appointment.

[...]

If you ask why in the Sam Hill the Saudis got involved in this tempest in a teapot, well, it has something to do with Saudi opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar, which backs the Brothers, and Erdogan's support for both. So naturally, the Saudis are backing the Kurds in this particular situation. But they are also realizing that they were short-sighted to make war on Assad, who is no friend of the Muslim Brotherhood or Erdogan for that matter.  

To cut a story, it's actually a pretty big teapot. In fact, it's a kettle. 

Donald Trump has unwittingly landed in the role of the frog in a kettle of slowly heating water. He has so many advisors focused on so many different agendas in the Middle East that he's only slowly become aware that his plans for extricating the United States from the region are being killed.

See also: "Turkey responds to Saudi Arabia's actions in E. Syria. Here we go;" July 13, 2019,  Pundita 

********