US-Saudi Relations; So Much Losses, So Little Gains

According to experts, the US gave Saudi diplomatic immunity and political cover this year but received little in return.

In the past 12 months, the US and Saudi Arabia have clashed on a number of fronts, most significantly over OPEC’s decision to significantly reduce oil production, which marked the year 2022 as a significant one for US-Saudi relations.

According to experts, this year’s relationship, which has been based on the exchange of oil for security for the past 70 years, has been particularly unusual and largely one-sided because Saudi Arabia received significant concessions from the US while Washington was frequently ignored.

The relationship has experienced several low points since US President Joe Biden took office, and there are increasing indications that Saudi Arabia is asserting its own interests outside of the partnership.

Riyadh had four years of cordial ties with the Donald Trump administration, so Biden’s election as US president marked a significant turning point in that relationship.

But Biden had vowed to designate Saudi Arabia as a “pariah,” denounced Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and even made public an intelligence assessment revealing that the US thought he was accountable for the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Although Biden had taken several steps in the beginning of 2021 to enrage Riyadh, this past year the US administration took many steps to appease the country, and Saudi Arabia in turn rejected American requests to increase oil production.

Not even democracy or human rights are at issue. According to Abdullah Alaoudh, the Gulf research director for Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), it is not beneficial to the US from both an interest and realpolitik standpoint.

“Now, what MBS has felt thus far is that he has legal immunity, political impunity, and the military protection of the US. All of this for nothing, just using oil as a weapon against the Americans,” according to Alaoudh.

Ukraine war

Russia invaded Ukraine in February, and the west firmly backed Ukraine during this time.

Like many other nations in the Middle East and around the world, Saudi Arabia chose to take a more neutral stance rather than join the condemnation of Moscow.

A US request to increase oil production was also rejected by Riyadh, who remained true to an agreement reached with Russia and Opec, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“Throughout 2022, tensions between the US and Saudi Arabia were high. Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics, a Washington-based geopolitical risk consultancy, criticized Riyadh for taking a relatively neutral stance toward Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington would have preferred to see the kingdom side with the West against Moscow.

Instead, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke on the phone with Vladimir Putin of Russia. He allegedly ignored calls from Biden prior to that point.

According to Ellen Laipson, director of the international security program at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, “US relations with the Gulf are currently experiencing “considerable acute friction.”.

“It is largely the result of the strenuous demands made by western nations around the world that everyone take part in isolating Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine. And that has not been well received in some Gulf nations.”