By Umar AbdurRahman
According to the U.S. Congressional Research Service report, February 18, 2020 which proclaimed that the Close U.S.-Saudi official relations have survived a series of challenges since the 1940s and in recent years, shared concerns over Sunni Islamist extremist terrorism and Iranian government policies have provided some renewed logic for continued strategic cooperation. Political upheaval and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa have created new challenges, and the Trump Administration has sought to strengthen U.S. ties to Saudi leaders as the kingdom implements a series of new domestic and foreign policy initiatives.
The report also started that leadership changes in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and debate in the United States over foreign policy priorities are fueling calls for a reassessment of longstanding ties.
The Al Saud monarchy has sought protection of its throne, advice, technology, and armaments from the United States, looking to U.S. partners for assistance in developing their country’s natural and human resources and in facing threats over time from the Soviet Union, regional rivals, Iran, and armed Sunni Islamist extremists. U.S. leaders have valued Saudi cooperation in security and counter-terrorism matters and have sought to preserve the secure and apolitical flow of the kingdom’s energy resources and capital investment to global markets.
Successive U.S. Administrations have sought partnership with the ruling Al Saud family since the 1940s in light of their kingdom’s large oil reserves and Saudi influence derived from their management of the birthplace of the Islamic faith.
It also had it that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s relations with the United States, the country’s stability, and its future trajectory are subjects of continuing congressional interest. In particular, Saudi leadership transitions, Saudi human rights practices and reform plans, and assertive foreign policies, along with trends in global oil markets, shared threats from transnational terrorist groups, and Saudi -Iranian tensions have fueled recent congressional discussions. U.S.-Saudi security cooperation and U.S. concern for the continuing global availability of Saudi energy supplies continue to anchor official bilateral relations as they have for decades.The Trump Administration has promoted U.S.-Saudi ties amid intensifying public and congressional scrutiny of Saudi policies in Yemen and the kingdom’s approach toward activists and dissidents, including the 2018 murder by Saudi officials of journalist Jamal al Khashoggi. In September 2019, President Trump deployed additional military personnel and assets to Saudi Arabia in response to escalating cross-border attacks on Saudi infrastructure. Saudi Arabia’s domestic politics, combined with its vulnerable regional position, have reinvigorated debate in Congress about the nature and extent of U.S. interests in the kingdom and U.S. security commitments to Saudi Arabia’s defense.
The report also believes that growth in the number of Saudi students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities that occurred after the mid-2000s may have cumulative economic, social, and political effects on Saudi society in future decades. This includes the possibility that educated and economically engaged youth that studied in the United States and other countries could make new social and/or political reform demands of Saudi leaders. In October 2019, Saudi leaders announced plans to allow foreign universities to open branch campuses in the kingdom.
According to the U.S. International Trade Administration, U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia in 2019 were worth $13.4 billion (down from $24.1 billion in 2018). In 2019, U.S. exports to Saudi Arabia were valued at $14.3 billion (up from more than $13.6 billion in 2018). To a considerable extent, the high value of U.S.-Saudi trade is dictated by U.S. imports of hydrocarbons from Saudi Arabia and U.S. exports of commercially sold weapons, machinery, and vehicles to Saudi Arabia.
On the Gulf Cooperation council tensions, between Qatar, Saudi and their regions allies, the report has it that both sides of the dispute have sought to influence the United States to support their position. While United States maintains close defense cooperation, including arms sales, with both Saudi Arabia and Qatar and continues to operate from military bases in Qatar and Saudi. U.S. officials have called for reconciliation and have offered to facilitate dialogue among the parties, but the dispute continues.
The report did not fail to observe the back stabbing of the Palestinians and her cause as Saudi leaders welcomed the Trump Administration’s efforts in developing its “Peace to Prosperity” plan, and they encourage the start of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to resolve differences. After the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) rejected the U.S. plan.
President Trump and King Salman bin Abd al Aziz agreed to a “Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century” during the President’s May 2017 trip to Riyadh.President Trump and King Salman further agreed to a “Joint Strategic Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America” and announced plans for a “Strategic Joint Consultative Group” intended to meet “at least once a year, alternating between the two countries” to review bilateral cooperation.
The report concluded by stating the overall, long-term U.S. concern masked as avoiding instability in the Gulf region (which is only attainable by the Gulf state submitting the reigns of authority to U. S. as meek sheeps popularly called puppets or stooges) and U.S. desires to convince or compel the kingdom’s evolving leadership to change or act in accordance with U.S. preferences. U.S. decision-makers may applaud steps taken by Saudi leaders to change longstanding practices and policies.
King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud submitted the Saudi's economy to the U.S. in exchange for security of his throne while the 6 sons who succeded him —Kings Saud, Faisal, Khaled, Fahd, Abdullah, and Salman—consolidated his efforts by strategically submitting the government and political policies followed by education among others. Now, the U. S. wants the grandsons, headed by Mohammed bin Salman to hand over the last blow which is her cultural and religious heritage to U. S. dictates. Would this be another success or the beginning of the end of the super power 'United State of America'?