From Pakistan to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia is its celebrated checkbook diplomacy, a long-standing policy of wasting petrodollars in exchange for influence, which observers say has yielded little tangible gain.
For decades, the rich kingdom has channeled billions of aid to its allies, and the enemies of its enemies, in an effort for its position as an Arab force and leader of the Muslim world.
But as the plummeting has undermined its oil revenues, the kingdom is reconsidering the old alliances that Saudi observers say have swallowed its cash while providing little in return, at a time when its quest for regional supremacy is being challenged through rivals such as Iran, Turkey, and Qatar.
A group of countries in the region, from Jordan and Lebanon to Egypt, Palestine and Pakistan, have been the main beneficiaries of Saudi aid over the past decade, Said Yasmine Farouk of the Middle East.
“However, economic duality has an effect on coronavirus and low oil prices, possibly led Saudi Arabia to restructure and rationalize aid,” said Farouk of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“The country is about to end the belief of being “an ATM.”
The kingdom contributed billions to the reconstruction of Lebanon after the civil war, but expressed frustration at its inability to Hezbollah, a harsh organization subsidized through its arch-enemy Iran.
With so many of his relationships turned into transactional, Riyadh struggles to earn respect and his once prominent role in the Muslim world is questioned through his rivals, say observers Photo: AFP/ MANDEL NGAN
“Saudi Arabia will not continue to pay Hezbollah’s expenses and Lebanese will have to take on their day-to-day work to their country,” Saudi columnist Khalid al-Sulaiman recently wrote for the official newspaper Okaz.
“It is no longer imaginable that Saudi Arabia continues to pay billions in Lebanon in the morning and get insults at night.
“This scenario is no longer compatible with Saudi new foreign policy, because Saudi cash falls from the sky or grows in the desert.”
Saudi Arabia also seems frustrated across Pakistan after the lifelong best friend prompted Riyadh to take a business position over the disputed Kashmir region and threatened to take the factor to other Muslim forums.
Such a risk is disconcerting to Saudi Arabia, which is home to islam’s holiest sites and is considered the leader of the Muslim world.
While the plummeting drop in demand has undermined its oil revenues, the kingdom is reconsidering the Foto: Royal Saudi Palace / Bandar AL-JALOUD alliances
Recently, the kingdom withdrew $1 billion from a liquidated loan of Pakistan’s $3 billion, and an oil credit line was renewed for billions of dollars due in Islamabad, a diplomatic source told the AFP.
“Pakistan’s elites have a bad habit of taking Saudi Arabia for granted, given what Saudi Arabia has done for Pakistan for decades,” tweeted Ali Shihabi, a Saudi writer and analyst.
“Well, the party’s over, and Pakistan will have to put a price on this relationship.It’s no longer a loose lunch or a one-way street.”
Riyadh’s relations with Pakistan have been “very warm,” but relations have been unbalanced, saudi Prince Talal bin Mohammad al-Faisal said.
“This (has) benefited an aspect in terms of the “genuine world,” he tweeted.
“On this side, there is Pakistan.”
Pakistan and Egypt, another best friend who has earned billions in aid, have rejected requests for floor troops for the Saudi Arabian army crusade in Yemen opposed to Iran-linked Houthi rebels.
Even more gruesome in Riyadh, a leaked audio recording in 2015 showed that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi allegedly mocked Gulf powers, adding that Saudi Arabia was accumulating cash “like rice.”
That sentiment was echoed in 2018 through U.S. President Donald Trump when he welcomed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Oval Office and presented a directory of multimillion-dollar sales tables of army apparatus to Riyadh.
“Take your money,” Trump told NBC News the following year, justifying his for the kingdom’s leaders after the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi caused a global uproar.
With so many of his dealings turned into transactional ones, Riyadh is suffering to earn respect and his role once a leader in the Muslim world is being challenged by his rivals, observers say.
The Saudis are green with envy of the “ungrateful” allies, Farouk said.
States that have benefited from Saudi Arabia’s generosity, adding Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, “have already noticed cases where aid has been frozen, reduced or cut,” he added.