You may know Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman as the younger brother of Mohammed bin Salman, the young, brash de-facto king. The leader, also, who U.S. intelligence officials assess with high confidence ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
You may also remember KBS as someone who was purportedly involved in Khashoggi’s demise, having assured the one-time royal court adviser that it was safe to collect his marriage documents at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul — the very place Khashoggi was subsequently dismembered. Or perhaps you associate KBS as being the kingdom’s former ambassador in Washington, D.C., who left town in disgrace after lying point-blank to U.S. lawmakers about the Saudi government’s culpability in the murder.
Either way, KBS was back in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday in his new role as deputy defense minister. But far from receiving Biden administration scorn, KBS was granted meetings with senior U.S. national security officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. KBS’s visit was controversial, which is perhaps why the Biden administration kept it quiet. Biden, after all, not so long ago pledged to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah.”
Still, it’s clear that Biden has been tougher on Saudi Arabia than his predecessor was. Less than two weeks after his inauguration, Biden pulled the United States out of Riyadh’s disaster of a war in Yemen. That war has plunged a desperately poor country into despair, disease, and starvation. Biden also suspended offensive weapons sales to the Saudis — the very weapons the Royal Saudi Air Force has used to pummel hospitals, schools, clinics, and residential buildings into the ground. And Biden made it clear that he wasn’t going to speak with the crown prince, viewing his father, King Salman, as the appropriate contact. Where does this leave us now?
Well, because Saudi Arabia is now such a controversial issue, finding a reasonable middle ground is difficult. Some in Washington believe the country has no business mingling with the kingdom under any circumstances. The Saudi royal family is a criminal syndicate, they argue, with a human rights record as equally perverse as the Taliban’s. The flip side is equally passionate: Saudi Arabia is too big to fail, and Washington has no alternative than to keep this oil-rich monarchy close. Even if, they argue, doing so requires turning a blind eye to Riyadh’s horrible foreign policy.
Fortunately, there is a middle ground between these two poles. It’s called being pragmatic.
U.S. officials can acknowledge the counterproductive and destabilizing aspects of Saudi Arabia’s behavior while recognizing that there are areas where Washington and Riyadh can collaborate. We may find Saudi Arabia’s internal practices abhorrent, but this shouldn’t necessarily translate into a total and unconditional cutoff of valuable relationships with the kingdom. U.S. officials can distance themselves from Saudi policies that are morally objectionable and strategically defective (the U.S. withdrawal from Yemen’s civil war being the most high-profile example) while continuing to leverage security partnerships that keep Americans safe.
When U.S. interests are directly at stake, Washington shouldn’t hesitate to approach their Saudi colleagues for assistance. But when the Saudis are simply trying to rope the U.S. into their own squabbles, Washington should be just as unapologetic in turning a cold shoulder.
This is not an easy balancing act to pull off. It will inevitably attract scorn from the two U.S. policy camps. One will bash the U.S. for being hypocritical and sullying its reputation as a defender of human rights. The other will engage in histrionics, warning about China pulling the kingdom into its camp, or Iran turning the region into its own colony.
But if the Biden administration can withstand the pressure and second-guessing, it can recalibrate the U.S.-Saudi relationship for the better.
Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own.
