Stepping back for a moment from the tension between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia over the role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi , what are the fundamentals of the relations between our nation and theirs? What should they be, and what could they be? For decades, defining the relationship boiled down to the simple adage of oil for security: “You supply the world with oil. We will provide you with security.” In those days, the threats to the kingdom came from the Arab nationalism of former president Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt, Iraq and Syria, rather than Iran, then still ruled by Mohammad Reza Shah. Things changed with the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the Arab oil embargo , which prompted a dramatic price increase. (The architect, Saudi oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani, died this week .) We quickly learned that the oil part of the deal meant “oil at reasonable prices,” and there was little agreement on the definition of … [Read more...] about For better or worse: Which way will US-Saudi relations go under Biden?
