Sometimes, it takes a jolt to make you see a relationship in a new light. With the always-complicated U.S.-Saudi dynamic, that moment may have arrived.
Sometimes, it takes a jolt to make you see a relationship in a new light. With the always-complicated U.S.-Saudi dynamic, that moment may have arrived.
The Saudis have long relied on the fact that they can peddle themselves as a key regional counterbalance to Iranian aggression and a global oil powerhouse to act as they please, sometimes openly interfering with U.S. interests with the conviction that there won’t really be consequences in the bilateral relationship.
They have long been evasive and cavalier about suspicions that Saudi officials had links to the 9/11 hijackers, 15 of whom were from the kingdom. While U.S. officials decry potential war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, the Saudis have inflicted mass civilian damages and casualties in Yemen with protest from Congress but insufficient pushback from presidential administrations. Four years after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the dismembering of U.S.-based Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, he has yet to fess up to his role, only vaguely acknowledging that “it happened under my watch.”
Throughout, U.S. officials have treated the unfortunate but necessary alliance as a close friendship, approving massive weapons sales and largely avoiding any blunt criticism. The appeasement seems to have won little leverage, as the Saudis led the oil-producing OPEC+ coalition to announce it would massively cut oil production targets despite repeated pleading from the U.S. not to. The move will likely raise energy prices and empower Russia’s oil sector at a time when it needs the revenues to continue its disastrous war, prompting President Joe Biden to finally issue some warnings about a serious U.S. response. The kingdom responded to these protestations by getting cozier with China.
It is undeniable that some security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is crucial to counter Iran. Yet at a moment when Iran is being roiled by internal turmoil turning its attention inward, and U.S. energy production just keeps growing, we should wonder what we’re getting from this relationship, and what some real consequences might look like for a regime used to default U.S. support.
