Israel normalisation in mind US secretary of state Blinken visits Saudi Arabia amid strained ties
Blinken is expected to meet top Saudi officials, including the kingdom’s de-facto ruler, the Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, also known as MbS, was in Riyadh, the capital, and the coastal city of Jeddah, on Washington’s second high-level visit recently. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan traveled to Saudi Arabia on May 7.
The top US diplomat’s June 6-8 visit to the world’s biggest oil exporter comes days after Riyadh vowed to cut oil production further, a move likely to add to a strain on US-Saudi relations already strained by the kingdom’s human rights record. and strife over America. Iranian policy.
The goals of the trip include regaining leverage with Riyadh over oil prices, fending off Chinese and Russian influence in the region and nurturing hopes for eventual normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations.
Speaking to the pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Monday, Blinken said Washington had a “real national security interest” in advocating for normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but warned that it would not happen. quickly.
Preventing closer Saudi-China ties may be the most important element of Blinken’s visit, said Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington-based think-tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD).
“(Blinken had to explain) why China’s interests are not aligned with Saudi Arabia’s, and why a closer strategic relationship hinders a closer relationship with Washington,” Goldberg said.
US-Saudi relations got off to a rocky start in 2019 when President Joe Biden during his campaign said he would treat Riyadh like a “pariah” if he was elected, and soon after taking office in 2021, released a US intelligence assessment. that Crown Prince Mohammed approved an operation to arrest or kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Biden’s July 2022 visit to the kingdom did little to defuse tensions, and more and more, Riyadh is seeking to reassert its regional influence, while being less and less keen to align with US priorities in the region.
The most recent example was when MbS gave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a warm hug at an Arab League summit in May, which saw Arab countries readmit Syria after a decade of suspension, a move Washington said was neither supported nor encouraged.
The kingdom has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into transforming and opening up its economy to reduce its dependence on crude oil. The reforms have been accompanied by arrests of critics of MBS, as well as businessmen, clerics and human rights activists.
US citizens and residents with family members detained in Saudi Arabia asked Blinken in a letter on Tuesday to pressure Saudi officials to release their relatives immediately. The list includes prominent cleric Salman al-Odah, children of former spy chief Saad al-Jabri, human rights defender Mohammed al-Qahtani and aid worker Abdulrahman al-Sadhan.
The Kingdom has released detained US citizens from its prisons, but some are still under travel bans.
US officials who briefed reporters on the trip last week said there were “ongoing conversations regarding the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms” with Saudi Arabia, but they declined to say whether Blinken would seek assurances from the Saudis on the matter.
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