Understanding the Ups and Downs of US-Saudi Relations

More than seven decades ago, the US and Saudi Arabia, despite differences on human rights and the Arab-Israeli conflict, established a close alliance. It was based on an exchange: The US gave security guarantees to Saudi rulers, and they promised access to the kingdom’s vast oil reserves. The arrangement has withstood periodic conflicts over the years. Of late, however, the relationship’s moorings have weakened, with the US no longer as dependent on Saudi oil and the Saudis less trusting of US protection. As a result, disputes that once might have been papered over can now seem like potential ruptures.

It remains strained over the 2018 murder by Saudi agents of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the kingdom’s government, in Istanbul. US intelligence agencies concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi leader, approved the operation. (The crown prince denied any involvement in the killing while accepting symbolic responsibility for it as the country’s unofficial ruler.) US President Joe Biden, while a candidate in 2019, pledged to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” for the murder, and while he didn’t go that far once in office, he did refuse all contact with Prince Mohammed. But in July 2022, Biden swallowed his pride, flew to Saudi Arabia and publicly bumped fists with the prince, hoping the kingdom would increase oil production and thus reduce prices, which had spiked as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine.