Alwaght- The US-Saudi relationship has been at its highest political, security, and economic levels for over seven decades since their first contacts under President Franklin Roosevelt in the middle of the 20th century. However, things are different today and their ties are nothing like those golden years.
Although in the demise of this historic alliance the role of such factors as the shift of the American foreign policy to East Asia and the Saudi discontentment with US administrations’ regional policies over the past decade has been like a devastating quake, the orientation of the White House policies towards the human rights issues under Biden accelerated this collapse, to an extent that now the Democratic administration in Washington is sparing no effort to mend ties with the Arab kingdom before the 2024 presidential election.
As a continuation to the trend of sending prominent political and security figures to Saudi Arabia over the past two months to break the chill gripping their relations, Washington once again sent a high-ranking diplomat to Riyadh. On Thursday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan visited Saudi Arabia to discuss with the Saudi de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman ways to clear bilateral ties from tensions.
According to the White House statement, Sullivan and bin Salman's discussions focused on ongoing initiatives to advance the shared vision of a more peaceful, secure, prosperous and stable region and efforts to end the 9-year-old Saudi war on Yemen.
Saudi news agency reported that the two sides discussed their strategic relations and ways to improve them and also the latest regional and international developments.
The Washington Post, citing a White House national security official, wrote that Sullivan and bin Salman also talked about the possible path of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Sullivan's visit to Saudi Arabia, which is his second one in the last three months, is a sequel to the series of visits by senior White House officials to the Arab monarchy which was previously visited by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and CIA Director William Burns who worked to put an end to the misunderstandings straining the two countries’ ties over the past year. But the developments indicate that the White House has not made any gains from these visits.
The fact that Sullivan and his Saudi host held their meeting behind the closed doors and away from the lenses of the cameras shows that they discussed other issues in addition to the ones mentioned by the media outlets.
Differences and outlook of bilateral relations
Although the differences between Saudi Arabia and the US have not gone public until in the past two years, there were conflicts of interest between the two allies over the regional issues since the past. Saudi Arabia's first objection to the US regional policies was in invasion of Iraq in 2003, when Nawwaz bin Abdulaziz, then head of the Saudi intelligence agency, said that the government of Iraq was an internal issue and that Riyadh was against any intervention in the country. Since then, other issues have fueled the cleavages between the two sides, until Ukraine war after which the gaps deepened.
Though resolutely backing Saudi Arabia in its aggression on Yemen in the beginning, after Joe Biden assumed the office in 2020, the White House changed its approach to large extent and, taking a humanitarian gesture, it sought to persuade Riyadh to end the war. This even damaged their relations sometime and led to the US cutting military backing and withdrawing Patriot air defense systems from the kingdom.
Also, after the war in Ukraine, which led to an energy crisis in the West due to the increase in the global prices of oil and gas, Washington put pressure on the Saudis to increase their oil output, but in this case, Riyadh is also taking steps against the wishes of Washington. Even in October 2022 When Saudi Arabia announced its decision to cut oil production within the framework of the OPEC+, in which Russia is a party, tensions between Riyadh and Washington escalated, and the Congress lawmakers demanded relations with the kingdom and military aids to it.
Another issue that has cast its shadow over the relations between the two countries in recent years is the human rights criticism of the Biden administration against bin Salman's policies especially on the case of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the outspoken critic of bin Salman, for whose death Biden personally said that he would punish bin Salman. Actually, Riyadh rulers are angry with Washington for always chastising them for rights issues.
Another difference between Washington and Riyadh that the Americans always try to downplay is the Saudi normalization with Syria which is stirring Western worries. The White House officials have tried hard to keep the Arab countries away from rapprochement with Damascus, but they failed in this case as well, and the difference in political views on regional issues is widening day by day.
Given these wide gaps between the two, Biden actually beats the air aspiring to see their bilateral relations mended. This is because over the past two years, the Arab countries have grown certain that the US hegemony is declining and it is not rational to entrust the regional security with this country anymore. They see China as the candidate to fill the US place and this is taking them towards the East. The long-term cooperation deals of Arab countries with China signed over the past year bears witness to this reality.
The US is seeking to distance the Arab rulers from China and Russia, and in order to gain the trust of its allies, it has strengthened its military presence in the Persian Gulf to send the message to them that it has not abandoned them and can defend their interests against threats, but it is a little late to make such demonstrative moves, and the Arabs are moving in the direction of divergence with the West and convergence with the East, and nothing can set up barriers in this path.
Struggling for unholy Riyadh-Tel Aviv bonds
Aside from bilateral relations, the most important case in the American-Saudi officials’ discussions in recent years has been the normalization with the Israeli regime that has gone nowhere despite a hard push. A normalization deal has the potential to change the face of the whole region and improve the Israeli regional position as Saudi Arabia is the most powerful and wealthiest Arab country. But mediation in such a project is a Herculean task as the Saudis are tying any normalization to the realization of the two-state solution, while the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has openly said he will not agree to a Palestinian state. Additionally, the provocative actions of the hardline Israeli ministers in Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in recent months have wreaked the Saudi interest in normalization.
With the conditions of the occupied territories extremely inflamed due to the policies of the cabinet radicals, the American government is trying to eliminate part of the security challenges of this regime in the region by facilitating Israeli-Saudi bonds, because Saudi turn towards Tel Aviv paves the way for The normalization of relations with other Arab states. Netanyahu had earlier said that the agreement with Saudi Arabia will end the Israeli -Arab tensions.
Additionally, Riyadh is constantly pressing Washington for a nuclear power plant with uranium enrichment capability on Saudi soil, but the Israelis are strongly against the idea, and this is one of the big obstacles of normalization. The US and Israel have been opposing this demand for years, claiming that with the nuclearization of Arab countries alongside Iran, a nuclear arms race will begin in West Asia and endanger the security of the region. This is while Israel, as the only holder of nuclear weapons in the region, is the biggest regional security challenge, threatening peace and stability.
Frequent US diplomatic visits to Saudi Arabia come as the US election campaign is starting in three months, and Biden, who sees his another term endangered, needs his wealthy allies for reelection.
Though the Saudis have shown that they can work better with the Republicans, Biden is working to get their support to both enhance his political place at home and somehow settle the West's energy crisis, but he has a difficult path ahead.
