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By Spencer Bokat-Lindell
Mr. Bokat-Lindell is the editor-in-chief.
This article is from the newsletter Debatible. You can sign up here to receive it on Wednesdays.
Saudi Arabia angered Washington last week when it joined Russia in raising oil costs by cutting production, undermining global efforts to limit the oil revenues Russia uses to fund its war in Ukraine. Democrats, the production cut was only the newest in a long line of unacceptable transgressions.
“The circle of Saudi royal relatives has never been a trusted best friend to our nation,” said Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “It’s time for our foreign policy to create a global one without this alliance with those real traitors. “
After signaling Tuesday that he would work with Congress to “reassess” U. S. relations with Saudi Arabia, President Biden warned that there would certainly be “consequences for what they did with Russia. “Is it time for the two countries to distance themselves from each other?This is what other people say.
The alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia dates back to 1933, when the newly founded Saudi state granted Standard Oil the right to explore its eastern province. The company temporarily discovered some of the world’s largest oil reserves, and in 1943 Franklin Roosevelt declared the defense of Saudi Arabia “vital to the defense of the United States. “
The oil-for-security swap promises the foundation of the U. S. -Saudi alliance even as it expanded to other dimensions later in the twentieth century. Both countries developed an interest in curtailing Iran’s ambitions after the 1979 Iranian revolution and opposing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. same year. Since the 1990s, the United States has been the world’s largest arms exporter and Saudi Arabia is its main customer.
This arrangement has required maximum tolerance for certain critical differences. Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s last absolute monarchies and a fundamentalist theocracy, with very few civil liberties to speak. And until just a few years ago, the United States and Saudi Arabia disagreed over Israel’s right to exist in what was, during Roosevelt’s presidency, British-controlled Palestine.
“This has been a high-stakes effort, and for a while the rewards seemed proportionate,” Joan Didion wrote in 2003 about U. S. -Saudi relations. We Israelis, and for helping both, enjoyed the ongoing business that went to an American defense industry founded particularly on arming all sides. “
But especially since the September 11 attacks, the U. S. -Saudi alliance has come under scrutiny:
Most of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, raising questions about whether their government played a role in the plot; Their participation remains a subject of research.
In 2015, Saudi Arabia introduced a bombing crusade in Yemen, with U. S. help, that killed some 9,000 civilians, according to one estimate.
During the 2016 election, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton denounced Saudi Arabia’s well-documented promotion of Islamic fundamentalism abroad.
In 2018, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, sparking outrage.
As a candidate, Biden said there is “very little redemptive social price in the existing government in Saudi Arabia” and vowed to turn the country into a “pariah. “Once in office, he took a much more conciliatory approach, in part in an attempt to keep fuel costs down. “If there is a lesson to be learned from Mr. Biden’s bitter party,” write David E. Sanger and Ben Hubbard of the Times, “is the days when American presidents could simply ask favors from their Saudi allies and expect them to execute them, simply for the sake of the relationship.
Saudi Arabia’s official justification for cutting output was nothing more than self-interest amid symptoms of a global slowdown. But some analysts and U. S. politicians friendly government. It’s the crown prince’s “October surprise,” said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “It’s their election interference. “
Even in the absence of such ulterior motives, the U. S. The U. S. would continue to call accusations of hypocrisy for being so wary of the kingdom: “If we really need a democracy opposed to authoritarianism, this would be a smart time to seriously reevaluate America. “”A longstanding relationship with one of the worst authoritarian governments in the world,” said Matt Duss, foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Perhaps the utility of the alliance for the United States was once to assess its ethical cost, but many argue that this is no longer the case. The concept that Saudi Arabia’s partnership is a “necessary evil” to counter Iran, for example, is difficult to reconcile with Biden’s efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal: either the deal limited Iran’s nuclear ambitions, in which case Saudi Arabia, which has long opposed the deal, it is an impediment to regional stability; or, as Kevin D. argued. Williamson in National Review in July, the deal strengthened Iran, in which case “Biden’s management is rarely orchestrating a grand alliance opposed to Iran. “
“Biden targets the Middle East and U. S. fuel prices. “”One of the most painful expressions of the destructive inflation that threatens Biden’s party’s electoral clients in the midterm elections this winter and beyond,” Williamson wrote.
According to Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, the world’s dependence on Saudi and Russian oil demonstrates the desire of the United States. to increase its own production to compensate for its cuts; that he can’t right now is an indictment of progressive environmentalists in Congress who have opposed new oil and fuel projects.
For climate hawks, however, the same trap-22 situation only underscores the urgency of an immediate transition away from fossil fuels. “be rooted in ‘shared interests,'” Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s former deputy national security adviser, wrote in July. “That’s what you want to replace. “
If Saudi Arabia seems more like an enemy than a best friend these days, Bloomberg Opinion columnist David Fickling says it’s because the kingdom recognizes how important it is to America’s prestige as a global superpower. If the U. S. withdraws its military presence in the region, as some Democrats have suggested, Fickling believes China would likely intervene in Saudi oil shipments because of hacking. a significant impediment to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
“The United States does not need China to deploy the weapon of power to gain hegemony in East Asia through a Pax Sinica,” Fickling writes. for Washington. “
Saudi Arabia’s authoritarian rule and human rights abuses run counter to professed values across the United States. But in the view of Yasmine Farouk, a nonresident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the United States has the most productive possibility of all. of Saudi citizens committing themselves to the kingdom, not walking away from it.
“Realpolitik politicians like to dismiss human rights having a position in pragmatic policymaking, however, M. Biden has an opportunity to integrate human rights into a renewed strategy with Saudi Arabia that the kingdom can accept, albeit enthusiastically,” he wrote in The Times in July.
But such a strategy, Farouk added, would also require the U. S. to do so. The U. S. will apply a consistent popular policy to all its relations: “It is simple for Saudi leaders to fire Mr. S. Biden While the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, which the State Department says is likely caused by gunfire from IDF positions, generates nothing resembling official outrage over Mr. Khashoggi’s murder.
For Jason D. Greenblatt, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, the Democrats’ outrage over Saudi production cuts shows a desire to recalibrate their expectations for the alliance, which in the end is a transactional rendezvous between two autonomous powers. Don’t put the interests of your allies before your own, and “likewise, we don’t ask other nations to put our interests before theirs,” he wrote. Saudi Arabia and its neighbors “are powerful and moving states, not vassals of the United States. “States. “
Do you have any points of view that we missed? Email us at debatable@nytimes. com. Please note your name, age and title in your response, which may be included in the next newsletter.
Correction: Last week’s edition of this bulletin contained data on nuclear policy expert Joseph Cirincione. He is no longer a member of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
“Five Ways Biden Can ‘Reassess’ Saudi Arabia Now” [Responsible Statecraft]
“Saudi Arabia is not America’s best friend. Biden prevents being treated as such. [Foreign Police]
“Saudi Arabia and the United States still want others” [Bloomberg]
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