Rexit - the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo's nomination as his replacement - has unnerved many in Qatar, but was applauded by pundits in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This difference in reaction was based on the assumption that Secretary Pompeo would be less likely to push for a resolution to the Gulf crisis. Also, experts in the region speculated that without Tillerson's balancing act, the Trump administration would start favouring Saudi Arabia and the UAE against Qatar in the ongoing crisis.
The optimism of Saudi Arabia and the UAE is misplaced, however. Following Tillerson's sacking, the Department of State may initially take some actions in favour of their camp, but this phase will not last long enough for them to exploit the situation, given the expressly anti-Muslim, "clash of civilisations" rhetoric evinced by Pompeo, former chief of the CIA. As he establishes himself in that post, his contempt for Arabs and Muslims is unlikely to allow him to distinguish Saudis and Emiratis from others.
The full article originally appears in Al Jazeera English.