Saudi Arabia is preparing for a tougher relationship with the new Biden administration after four years in which President Trump
Donald Trump: The Trump Hotel in DC raises room rates for the inauguration of Biden The GOP MP criticizes Trump, his colleagues for “trying to discredit” the election. it provided a direct line to the Oval Office and provided support even though some of its policies and actions attracted controversy and bipartisan contempt.
The Trump-Saudi relationship has been a constant source of tension between the White House and many Republicans in Congress who have resented the Kingdom’s involvement in killing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the United States and the White House’s unwavering support for the Saudi war effort in Yemen. These actions have also drawn heavy criticism from Democrats.
President-elect Joe Biden
Joe BidenBidens honors New York frontline employees: “We owe them, we owe them, we owe them” Trump Hotel in DC raises room rates for Biden’s inauguration The video shows long lines on the last day of early voting in Georgia MORE he called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” and promised a strong hand in relations with the country, especially in the face of Riyadh for its human rights abuses.
The Trump years were a golden age in some ways for the Saudis, as the GOP administration suddenly pivoted the United States to Riyadh, pulling the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal. The administration’s aggressive anti-Iran policies also led to a military strike that killed the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Saudi Arabia, which has seen the Obama administration’s negotiations with Tehran as an unwanted opening, expects a more strained relationship with Biden’s team. It is already working to calm the turbulent waters between Washington and Riyadh, with the expected release of a prominent women’s rights activist and a possible approach to the blockade of Qatar, which houses one of the headquarters of the US Central Command at Al Udeid Air Base.
“They have no friends here,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who advised both Republican and Democratic administrations on US policy in the Middle East. “Congress is hostile, the Trump administration is on its way out, the Biden administration has clarified its views.”
Saudi Arabia is expected to release prominent women’s rights activist Loujain al-Haltoul in March.
Arrested in 2018 on terrorism charges, al-Haltoul was sentenced on Monday to almost six years in prison on charges that human rights groups criticize as politically motivated. But the conditions of his sentence leave open the possibility of an early release.
“I don’t think this is a coincidence,” Hussain Ibish, a resident scientist at the Arab Gulf Institute in Washington, said of the sentence.
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan
Jake Sullivan Biden’s frustration grows due to Trump’s lack of cooperation in transition National Security Adviser received: Pentagon failed to meet with Biden transition team on December 18 Saudi female activist convicted Riyadh set up Riyadh for Biden confrontation MORE posted on Twitter that the sentence was “unfair and disturbing” and that “the Biden-Harris administration will rise up against human rights violations wherever they occur.”
Saudi Arabia also appears to be taking steps to resolve its four-year blockade of Qatar, which came as a result of Riyadh’s frustration with Doha’s relations with Tehran.
Saudi King Salman allegedly invited Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to the Emir of Qatar on Wednesday at the January 5 meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in what was seen as an effort to start resolving the dispute.
“I think that would attract the Biden administration a lot,” Ibish said. “I don’t think they want to inherit the boycott of Qatar.”
Saudis are skeptical that the Biden administration will be Obama 2.0, with many of the same faces from the previous democratic administration returning to different roles.
This includes Sullivan, who was the main negotiator in the initial talks that led to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and Anthony Blink
Antony Blinken: Biden’s choice to lead the US intelligence community, Mnuchin, said he spoke with Yellen, a nominee for the Biden Treasury. Next steps for foreign policy MORE, Nominated by Biden for Secretary of State. Blinken was Biden’s national security adviser when he was vice president and deputy secretary of state between 2015 and 2017.
Blinken, in particular, is seen as part of a younger generation of foreign policy advisers who have served in the Obama administration and supported former President Obama’s strength for democratic change in the Middle East.
And while Biden said he would “reevaluate” the US relationship with Saudi Arabia, he said he wanted more to restore balance on the world stage than to adopt a revolutionary policy change.
The Biden transition team said it was not in a position to comment beyond what the president-elect said after the campaign and showed his previous comments on the US-Saudi relationship.
Biden issued a statement in October on the second anniversary of Khashoggi’s assassination, saying the Biden-Harris administration would reevaluate the US relationship with Saudi Arabia and end Washington’s support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. He also expressed support for Saudi activists, dissidents and journalists, saying the US would not “check its values at the door to sell weapons or buy oil”.
Tamara Cofman Wittes, a senior senior in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said a reassessment is needed to counter Saudi Arabia’s culture of impunity, while reflecting a changed world.
“Changes in global energy markets mean that Saudi Arabia’s role in global oil prices is not as dominant as it once was,” she said. “The Middle East is generally less central to US global strategy.”
“But you can’t take relationships on your own in general and I think that’s true here,” she added.
This includes reports of the Saudi government trying to kidnap one of its critics in the US and FBI assessments that the Kingdom is using its diplomatic facilities to help Saudi citizens escape criminal prosecution in US courts. In November 2019, two former Twitter employees and a Saudi citizen were accused by the Justice Department of acting as illegal agents of a foreign government.
“This desire for reassessment is probably triggered by some of the very worrying Saudi behavior we’ve seen in recent years, but it’s also driven by these trends that can’t really be ignored,” Wittes said. who served as deputy deputy secretary of state for Middle East affairs in the Obama administration.
Riyadh holds a key negotiating chip with the Biden administration over the opening of relations with Israel, following the Trump administration’s mediation of diplomatic ties between Jerusalem and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
While Saudi Arabia maintains quiet security ties with Israel in the face of Iran and has taken small steps to soften relations – such as opening airspace to Israeli commercial flights – it has so far continued to fully open ties to the Saudi king’s commitment. Salman Palestinians.
“If and when – I guess it’s a question of when – the Saudis decide to take another step towards normalization with Israel, they will see … this as a way to energize their very low relationship with what they anticipate is a Biden administration that come in, ”said Miller of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia is considered a full but necessary alliance, based on common goals over common values, said Ibish of the Arab Gulf States Institute.
This includes the US, which needs relations with Saudi Arabia as part of broader alliances to counter China’s global ambitions, destabilize Russia’s activities and maintain stability in the Middle East.
Riyadh, in turn, needs the security offered by the United States as a global power to ensure its own national integrity.
“For the US, it is indeed global politics at the highest level,” Ibish said. “The two countries are close to each other.”