According to “Today’s Headlines” from the New York Times, the decision by new Saudi king Salman to snub President Obama by not coming to the U.S. to meet with him at the White House or attend the summit at Camp David “appeared to be a signal of Saudi Arabia’s continued displeasure with the Obama administration over United States relations with Iran, its rising regional adversary.” Well, yes. It is that. But unfortunately it’s also something considerably more serious.

It’s a signal of their lack of respect for him as president. It is one thing to disagree with his stand on Iran, or anything else, and even to make that disagreement known. It is quite another to show flagrant disregard for his favour or disfavour.

Barack Obama is neither respected by his friends nor feared by his enemies. And, speaking of the Saudis, he is neither respected nor feared by those who are both at once. Regardless of the excuses and yes-buts and extenuating circumstances, it is a severe indictment of his conduct of foreign policy that a man who, by virtue of his office, is famously “the most powerful man in the world” has reduced himself to such irrelevance that regional players like Saudi Arabia aren’t afraid to brush him off in public.