The invitation to and the visit of French President François Hollande to attend the summit meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council on May 4-5, 2015 was both a meaningful symbol and a signal to the United States, the historic ally of the Gulf countries.  It directly alluded to the changing attitudes of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States toward the United States as a result of differences on Middle East issues. The visit was symbolic of changing relationships in two ways.  The first is that Hollande is the first Western leader to be invited to a GCC (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain) summit.  The last foreign leader to be invited to the summit was the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in December 2007.  The second is that it pre-empted the U.S.-Arab summit to be held in Washington, D.C. in mid-May and was given equal prominence. It is clear by now that France has taken the lead in Europe in its criticism of the...(Read Full Article)