It can always be problematic jumping on horses in the international arena, so the Saudis’ embrace of the Trump Administration should prove interesting. But is their excitement a matter of content, or simply of the pressure of events? Bruce Riedel explores that topic in AL Monitor:
The enthusiasm for the new US team is a reflection of the deep disappointment with the Obama administration. It’s more than a bit ironic since Obama courted the Saudis avidly his whole term in office. Riyadh was his first destination in the Arab world and he traveled to Saudi Arabia more than any other country in the Middle East, including Israel. He sold more than $110 billion in military equipment to the kingdom, far more than any of his predecessors.
But Obama also flirted with backing the Arab Spring. He hailed the departure from power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. He encouraged the Bahraini royal family to compromise with the Shiite majority for political reforms on the island. His first secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, pressed for gender equality around the world. For the Saudis, the US support for political and social change and reform, however half-hearted, was an unprecedented departure from traditional US support for the status quo and authoritarian leaders in the region.
But they’re smart:
Last week, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud completed a three-week trip to Asia with a stop in China where the Saudis signed $65 billion in new trade agreements. The Asia trip and especially the China visit have been trumpeted as strategic moves by the kingdom. The Saudis are especially interested in military cooperation with Beijing.
And something I’d forgotten:
The other irritant is the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which allows the kingdom to be sued for its alleged role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Trump supports the bill that Obama vetoed only to be overridden. Now hundreds of family members of victims of the 9/11 attack have filed a lawsuit against the Saudis for allegedly funding al-Qaeda before 2001 and for allegedly providing assistance to the hijackers. Saudi diplomats in the United States and Germany allegedly were involved in the plot.
There are fundamental problems with friendly relations between autocratic and democratic countries because of the differing assumptions about how society should be organized. Of course, an autocrat like Trump should help spackle over those differences during his time in office, but the complicating factor is the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, mentioned above, which leaves Saudi Arabia open to the blot of the word terrorism on its honor.
I wonder, though, if Obama should have filed suit against it in the Supreme Court, claiming Congress was overstepping its authority and infringing on the right of the President to conduct foreign policy.
