In 1945 Franklin Roosevelt, on his way home from the Yalta summit with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin, met King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud on a US warship midway up the Suez Canal. Having settled the disposition of postwar Europe, FDR laid a foundation stone of the postwar Middle East: the US would underwrite the security and integrity of the kingdom Ibn Saud had only recently united by the sword, and the Saudis would guarantee the free flow of oil westwards at reasonable prices. That deal now looks as though it may be falling apart.
1945年，富蘭克林•羅斯福(Franklin Roosevelt)前往雅爾達與溫斯頓•邱吉爾(Winston Churchill)和約瑟夫•史達林(Joseph Stalin)舉行峯會。回國途中，他在停泊在蘇伊士運河的一艘美國軍艦上會見了阿卜杜勒•阿齊茲•伊本•沙烏地(Abdul Aziz ibn Saud)國王。已經解決戰後歐洲安排問題的羅斯福，爲戰後的中東格局奠定了一塊基石：美國將幫助伊本•沙烏地剛剛用武力統一起來的王國，保障它的安全和領土完整，而沙烏地方面將保證以合理的價格源源不斷向西方供應石油。但現在，這個協議看上去可能將土崩瓦解。