Diplomatic efforts intensified during the past few days, in an attempt to revive US-Saudi relations, after they reached their lowest level in years due to a number of contentious issues, while observers believe that reaching a “healthy relationship” between the two countries cannot be without conditions. .
On Thursday, a spokeswoman confirmed White House, Karen Jean-Pierre, reported a few days ago about the visit of US officials to Saudi Arabia. She said that US President Joe Biden’s senior adviser on Middle East affairs, Brett McGurk, and the State Department’s envoy for energy affairs, Amos Hochstein, discussed in Riyadh the Kingdom’s participation in “energy security”, as multi-faceted discussions were held with the Saudis, she said.
Relations have worsened since the arrival of US President Joe Biden in January 2021 to the White House, after he pledged during his election campaign to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” country, against the background of issues including the kingdom’s human rights record, and the killing of the Saudi writer in the Washington Post, Jamal Khashoggi. and the war in Yemen.
With the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine about four months ago, the energy file added another factor of contention to the tension factors in relations between Washington and the world’s largest oil producer.
In an opinion article published Thursday in the newspaper “Washington PostThe American health technology businessman and Saudi cardiologist, Khaled Al-Jabri, expressed his optimism about the possibility of “healthy” relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States.
But al-Jabri stressed in his article that any reconciliation with Saudi Arabia must be built in accordance with American interests and values.
Last year, Biden declassified an intelligence report that found that Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Khashoggi, an assertion denied by Saudi authorities.
The two men, Mohammed bin Salman and Biden, have not spoken since the latter took office.
For al-Jabri, who says two of his brothers are being held in Saudi Arabia, there would be no explicit accountability for Khashoggi’s murder without direct sanctions against the Saudi crown prince, and a written apology from MBS would be meaningless.
Khashoggi, a journalist who wrote articles for the Washington Post criticizing the crown prince, the country’s de facto ruler, was killed on October 2, 2018, in his country’s consulate in Istanbul, in an operation that dismembered him and shocked the world.
But the Khashoggi case is only part of the many pending files between Riyadh and Washington, which are apparently being resolved.
Relationships are at an all-time low
According to the networkCNN“The American, Biden, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the kingdom, may meet for the first time next month, multiple sources told the network.
The network quoted current and former US officials as saying that Biden administration officials are in talks with the Saudis about arranging a possible personal meeting while the president is abroad next month.
And on Thursday, Axios reported that two senior advisers to the US president, Joe Biden, paid a secret visit to Saudi Arabia to hold talks about a possible arrangement between the kingdom, Israel and Egypt.
According to the site, there is talk of an agreement to increase oil production and bilateral relations between Washington and Riyadh, three current and former US officials told Axios.
Axios indicates that Biden is currently considering a visit to Saudi Arabia as part of a planned trip to the Middle East at the end of June.
The visit may end an unprecedented period of deteriorating relations between the two countries.
In an interview with Al-Hurra, the Saudi analyst, Ahmed Al-Ibrahim, admits that the relations between the two countries have always been strong and excellent, but they are now at their lowest levels.
The Saudi analyst blames Washington for the deterioration of relations, saying, “This is something that is not controlled by Riyadh, but by Washington, the lobbies, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer (the presidents of the House and Senate) and the owners of newspapers who direct American public opinion on their mood.”
The Saudi analyst refuses to “distort” the name of Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the file, which was closed long ago, in reference to the Khashoggi case.
Axios quoted his sources as saying that reaching a package of understandings between the United States and Saudi Arabia on these issues is of paramount importance for the visit.
Attempts to meet between Biden and the Saudi crown prince come, although some American officials have expressed their desire to avoid the appearance that Biden is backing away from his pledge to keep democratic values at the forefront of his foreign agenda, according to CNN.
human rights
At the beginning of his term, Biden focused on human rights issues in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the world. But Richard Weitz, a political analyst at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, expects that to change.
Weitz told Al-Hurra that the Biden administration will not stress human rights issues at the present time, because Washington is currently focusing, in seeking to improve its relations with Saudi Arabia, on increasing energy exports and that Riyadh is reducing its purchases of Russian weapons.
Washington also wants, the analyst says, less Saudi opposition to Israel and cooperation in discussions on Iran.
Russia and the oil file
The Biden administration wants Riyadh to raise its oil production so that the United States will be able to pressure through sanctions on Russia, in light of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The Saudis have so far stuck to their agreement with Russia on oil production levels. But this agreement is due to expire in September, which could create an opportunity to reach an agreement with the United States on future production levels, Axios said.
Saudi political analyst, Ahmed Al Ibrahim, says that Riyadh wants Washington to take into account its interests, noting that the kingdom has contracts with many countries, and that these contracts should not be “politicised,” as he put it.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest oil producers and exporters, has refused US pressure to increase production with the aim of reducing prices that have risen to above $100 a barrel since last February due to the war in Ukraine.
In addition to the thorny human rights file, which the Ibrahim family believes that the Biden administration “implicated itself” in Saudi internal affairs, the Kingdom desires American support in the files of Yemen and Iran.
The Saudi analyst believes that Riyadh is an ally of Washington, but it does not receive the necessary support, pointing out that if Riyadh had received 10 percent of the American support provided to Ukraine, the Yemeni file would have been resolved and the Yemeni people would have been at best, as he put it.
It is noteworthy that the Russian invasion of Ukraine added to the contentious issues between Washington and Riyadh, while the kingdom is resisting US pressure to increase oil production in an attempt to curb prices that have risen since the start of the war.
Previously, the meeting between the Americans and the Saudis would have been routine, but now it represents a major transformation. It is also likely to spark some controversy at home for Biden, who has been highly critical of the Saudis’ human rights record, their war in Yemen, and the role their government played in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, CNN found.