Story highlights Fareed Zakaria says Saudi Arabia's hostility toward Qatar was already proving problematic

Zakaria: "Trump gave a green light to the Saudis to pursue their increasingly aggressive, sectarian foreign policy"

(CNN) CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Sunday urged President Trump to tread carefully with his strategy toward relations with the Middle East, especially when it comes to Qatar.

"Donald Trump returned from his first overseas trip convinced that he had unified America's historic Arab allies, dealt a strong blow against terrorism and calmed the waters of an unruly Middle East," said Zakaria on his show, "GPS."

But since then, Zakaria pointed out, the world has seen "a series of terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East and an open split within the Arab world."

What's more, he emphasized, this week, Saudi Arabia began leading a group of countries to break off relations with Qatar , putting the United States in a tenuous position. Nine nations have so far moved to indefinitely sever ties with Qatar, a country of nearly 2.3 million people. Saudi Arabia has severed all land, sea and air links with the country, and Qatari citizens have been given 14 days to leave Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE.

All this showed that Trump's strategy of strengthening relations with Saudi Arabia to fight terror and stabilize the region had spectacularly backfired, said Zakaria.

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