> From my weak understanding, it’s the only ally the west (USA) has in the Middle East, so they’re important strategically

Nope, the US has bases in Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Djibouti and is friendly with the regimes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Sorry, that’ll teach me to state beliefs rather than facts. Thanks for the correction.

In Jordan, Kuwait, and Lebanon, too. Believe the US arms and trains the Lebanese army?

In Syria, the US has friendlies and bases setup to help them. In Iraq, the US maintains strategic presence.

Having military bases is very different than a country being an ally.

Countries like Egypt are very shaky politically and the others are not even democracies.