As he aims to renew his policy towards Saudi Arabia, President Biden is aiming for a balance that will strengthen US control of Riyadh, without breaking a strategic partnership that marks 76 years on Sunday, current and former US officials said.
The review of relations with the oil-rich kingdom is broader than reported. Along with arms sales and the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, it includes an assessment of whether the United States has done enough to answer to Saudi officials for killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi and other aspects of the two countries’ ties, US officials said.
During his campaign, Mr Biden called Saudi Arabia a “pariah”. Since then, the new administration has taken a different tone, stressing that the US will help defend the kingdom against Iranian-backed attacks in the region, even as it calls for an end to the civil war in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia intervened in 2015.
As relations have deteriorated over the past decade, Washington and Riyadh still need each other on several fronts, from fighting Iran to coordinating counterterrorism and energy policies, current and former officials have said.
“It’s quite difficult to predict any kind of strategy in the region that can work if the Saudis are not part of it,” said Dennis Ross, who has played key roles in the Middle East under Republican and Democratic presidents.