Last week, Saudi Arabia joined Russia and other oil-producing countries in the cartel known as OPEC in voting to cut oil production at a time when energy costs are traditionally high and inflation is rising. Vladimir Putin’s war machine, but also to oppose the competitive paints that the US Congress has put on the table. The U. S. and Biden administration have done to counter inflation rates and reduce gasoline costs. But this hostile action through Washington’s putative friends in Riyadh presented a silver lining: it showed that the U. S. was not yet in the future. The U. S. has abundant influence in correcting what has a fundamentally unbalanced relationship. Time and again, Saudi Arabia has reneged on its promises to the US. Whether it’s massacring civilians in Yemen with U. S. weapons, murdering U. S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi, or committing human rights violations. It’s time for the U. S. to take action. The US avoids allowing Saudi Arabia’s bad habit and reinstates this unilateral relationship.
To that end, one of us, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. , introduced legislation that would suspend all U. S. gun sales. The U. S. government is in Saudi Arabia for a year after its resolution to endanger the world economy by reducing oil production. Oil production levels promised, Washington reconsiders the pause in some less sensitive arms sales and similar activities, such as maintaining M1A2 Abrams aircraft and tanks. However, Saudi Arabia as of 2017 will remain suspended until US-Saudi relations have been fully reassessed. It can be said that Saudi Arabia wants American weapons more than the United States wants Saudi oil. If Riyadh continues to take more from Washington than it provides in return, it suffers the consequences.
The U. S. -Saudi meeting is technically not an alliance, as the two countries have not signed a treaty or mutual defense pact. But for decades, Washington has given Riyadh oversized security protection, largely in exchange for oil. until the 1970s, when they were ceded to Saudi Arabia, immediately making it one of the richest countries in the world. And even then, the United States continued to guarantee Saudi Arabia’s security in exchange for a commitment to supply oil materials and a regional partnership. .
But Riyadh continues to exploit this historic relationship, gaining security generosity far beyond its desires and abilities. Even more troubling, since 2017, Saudi Arabia has acquired some of the most sensitive domestic defense technologies from the United States on a scale that exceeded combined American transfers. with more reliable American allies: Australia, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom and the countries of the European Union. In addition to the THAAD and Patriot missile systems, the Saudis now have complex attack helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, among other complicated American weapons. Riyadh’s plan to manufacture significant parts of those sensitive systems transferred locally to the American generation deserves to be deeply troubling.
Saudi Arabia’s resolve to renege on its oil production commitments offers the possibility of reconsidering such reckless and harmful arms deals. If the Saudis cancel their planned production cuts, Washington is not expected to lift the pause on those transfers until it completes a broader reassessment of the U. S. -Saudi defense relationship. sales indefinitely.
Such a halt would weaken Saudi defenses. Without U. S. help. To maintain its air force, the entire Saudi fleet would be grounded within months, as foreign weapons systems are sometimes not interchangeable with U. S. systems. They cannot be replaced by them. As weapons expert Bruce Riedel explained to the Washington Post: “It would take decades to move from American and British aircraft, for example, to Russian or Chinese aircraft. [It’s] going through tanks, communications and other high-tech equipment. In other words, it would be up to Riyadh to locate new weapons resources overnight.
A pause in U. S. arms salesSaudi Arabia would not strengthen either China or Russia. Despite its occasional saber-rattling, Riyadh obviously depends on Washington, buying 79% of its weapons and nearly 100% of its high-quality complex weaponry from the United States. Much of the remaining 21% of its arms purchases consist mainly of inferior and obsolete small arms, such as Soviet-era grenade launchers, rifles and ammunition, as well as small orders for much lower Chinese drones and aircraft. Simply put, American weaponry remains the ultimate complex in the world, several generations ahead of the old weapons Russia deploys on the battlefield in Ukraine. Naturally, Saudi Arabia needs to buy the newer flying Cadillac and Lincoln, not the second-hand flying Skoda and Lada.
Riyadh has other reasons to prefer American weapons. Russia and China have a close military with Iran, making the purchase of aircraft or maintenance agreements with either country a potential threat to Saudi Arabia’s security. Partly for this reason, Riyadh has never bought a fixed-wing military aircraft. from a non-Western provider.
Halt U. S. Gun Sales Nor would the US benefit Iran. A strong and guilty Saudi Arabia would advance U. S. interests. The U. S. government serves as a regional bulwark opposed to an increasingly nuclear Iran. But Saudi Arabia failed to act in a way responsable. de U. S. weapons systems. The U. S. military military in addition to its indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Yemen has strengthened Iran’s position in long-running proxy conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria by helping Iranian-backed militias garner popular support. the misuse of U. S. weapons would not increase Iran’s malign influence in the region, but would help it curtail it.
As for the effect on U. S. defense contractors,U. S. gun sales U. S. U. S. Saudi Arabia makes up a small fraction of the profits and domestic jobs generated by the U. S. defense industry. A fraction that will be further reduced with the long orders of U. S. weapons formula orders. UU. de other Persian Gulf countries and around the world. The demand is mainly for the THAAD and Patriot missile formulas.
Finally, preventing arms sales would inspire the Saudis to withdraw more oil materials from the market. Despite its false claims that there is no reserve capacity, Saudi Arabia is already extracting 33% less oil than it was just two years ago. It means risking wasting a percentage of the market for other producers, especially since the amenities of Riyadh’s garage are already overwhelmed because it has blatantly refused to release strategic reserves this year.
Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, Saudi Arabia has sought to redefine its symbol of an authoritarian oil state committing human rights abuses to an oasis of stability, predictability and modernity. the right to drive. He also presented a massive allocation of $500 billion to build a desert city called Neom, powered through a renewable energy grid and governed through a new legal system.
But those branding efforts have been consistently undermined by the Saudi regime’s conduct, adding its harsh crackdown on dissent, horrific human rights abuses at home and abroad, and continued use of torture and beheadings to punish warring parties. Freedom House ranked Saudi Arabia last in its annual human rights report, and the World Economic Forum ranked Saudi Arabia in the last 5% of countries on gender equality, well below neighboring Arab countries. Even after the U. S. president Saudi Arabia in July, Saudi courts temporarily sentenced several belligerent parties to the regime to lengthy criminal sentences. Clearly, the Saudis take their promises to improve their human rights record as seriously as they take their promises to maintain global oil stability.
Riyadh’s latest resolution to marry Moscow has further tarnished her image. Even before this month’s OPEC resolution, Saudi Arabia appeared to be moving closer to Putin, at least on questions of power. OPEC itself is the product of the development of cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Russia. backed by MBS and Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Economic Summit in 2016, the first time Riyadh and Moscow began collaborating on oil issues. Since then, the two leaders have cemented their marriage with joint phone calls and special coordination, a brazen and lengthy — he ignored the violation of the “reliable oil producer” pledge that underpins Washington’s strategic marriage with Riyadh.
The United States can no longer tolerate such shortcomings, jeopardizing its own interests to cover up Saudi recklessness. Saudi leaders believe they can corner the United States, forcing it to conform to their terms for a partnership that does little to advance U. S. interests. Such arrogance, presumption, and deceit have shattered the agreement with the United States once placed in the Saudi regime. A pause in arms sales would send a strong message to Riyadh that it will have to bring back Washington’s deal with the United States. .