On July 15th, President Joe Biden traveled to Jeddah with the goals of finalizing international agreements and promoting a more stable and prosperous Middle East, according to a White House press release. Though many American presidents have traveled to Saudi Arabia, Biden’s visit was particularly contentious due to his fist-bump encounter with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) whom he once swore to make a “pariah” over the brutal murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The murder of Mr. Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi dissident, shocked human rights activists who demanded accountability especially following the release of a CIA report that found MBS to be deeply involved. Even after defending his decision in a Washington Post op-ed, Biden has been met with a slew of condemnation, and sparked a debate surrounding whether his encounter with the de facto ruler signals the buckling of America’s morality under its desire, or the realization that engagement will better serve American values and interests than ostracism.
Since its nascence in 1945, the US-Saudi relationship has been primarily focused on two main factors: oil and security. The United States needed oil from Saudi Arabia, and Saudi leadership desired security guarantees against Iran and its proxies. In recent years, this dynamic has been modified by an American shift toward renewable energy and MBS’ rise to power, bringing with him his goals of diversifying the economy and Saudi security independence. While the classic two-fold foundation was shifted once again with the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and its effect on global energy supply, Saudi Arabia still looks to the United States as a deterrent against the Iranian nuclear threat, and as a buyer of Saudi oil. These dependencies, however, leave the door cracked for American leverage on vital issues such as human rights.
While Biden addressed a variety of issues, many feel as though his trip to Saudi Arabia drilled down to oil. With elections looming on the horizon, Biden has exhausted his main options to lower gas prices domestically and now requires a greater influx of oil to decrease prices. With possession of 17% of the world’s proven oil reserves, Saudi Arabia has positioned itself as a particularly salient actor in this global energy crisis. In fact, according to the U.S Energy Information Administration, Saudi Arabia is one of the only oil producers with the capacity to increase production and pump more oil into the global market, though there has been some debate as to whether or not this will affect Americans at the pump. Ahead of the visit, the White House announced an anticipated increase in crude oil production from OPEC+, which includes Saudi Arabia.
Regardless of Biden’s motives, critics felt as though the human rights risks significantly outweighed the potential rewards. Agnès Callamard, the Secretary General for Amnesty International and former UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, expressed a strident disapprobation for Biden’s visit as a signal that his pledge to protect human rights “is conditional and selective,” and that “those who have something of political or economic value to offer are given a pass.”
Fred Ryan, publisher of The Washington Post, slammed the President’s photo-op with MBS for signaling “to autocrats everywhere that you can quite literally get away with murdering a journalist as long as you possess a natural resource the United States wants badly enough.” Ryan also scrutinized the issue within the greater context of American foreign policy and reputation, stating that “about-faces” such as Biden’s supposed reversal on MBS “erode our moral authority and breed anti-American resentment.”
Another major concern of the visit is its potential to be used in the Crown Prince’s scheme to restore his tumultuous reputation. “Regardless of the trip’s outcome, the image of Mr. Biden meeting Prince Mohammed on his own turf will provide validation of the young royal’s position at the helm of one of the most important countries in the Middle East and provide a boost to his vision for the kingdom and its more forceful place in the world,” cautions Ben Hubbard, author of MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman and Beirut Bureau Chief at the New York Times.
Alternatively, those in favor of the visit argue that American involvement in Saudi Arabia can help foster better policy and governance, and that leaving bloody hands unshaken does little to prevent human rights abuses in the future. F. Gregory Gause III, head of the International Affairs department at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government, sees Biden’s trip as reflective of “America’s new realism” and a “necessary and understandable reaction to the world as it is.” He believes the visit may “help to right a relationship that can, if played correctly, help to stabilize world oil markets, extend the truce in the Yemeni civil war, and contain Iranian ambitions.” Defense Priorities’ fellow Daniel R. Depetris also finds it necessary to engage with Saudi Arabia within the context of the current global order. Depetris defends Biden’s visit as a “bow to reality” from a President that has “rightly come to the conclusion that a strategy of isolating MBS isn’t feasible, particularly at a time when high energy prices remain a top concern for Americans back home.”
Overall, the concerns of Mr. Khashoggi’s fiancé and other human rights defenders are more than warranted. Images such as that of MBS and Biden can be used by rulers to bolster their reputation domestically, which has a large influence on their legitimacy and longevity. This is highly problematic, as MBS has subjected his citizens to excruciating levels of repression including incidences of torture, arbitrary detentions, surveillance and the targeting of dissidents. To let these actions go unpunished is an irresponsible affront to the cause of human rights and international press freedom. That being said, a complete isolation of Saudi Arabia and severing of all ties would not result in the amelioration of domestic freedoms or the alleviation of suffering that human rights activists desire. It is arguably a more effective strategy for the United States to work within a relationship with Saudi Arabia, one in which they remain staunch on their human rights goals and responsibilities, than to completely isolate the Gulf nation altogether.
There is a way to signal to the world the unacceptability of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record without entirely isolating a leader whose “I do not care” comment demonstrates a disregard for America’s perception of his actions. Through the use of rhetoric only, the United States will not likely be able to alter MBS’s domestic repression as effectively as if there were economic and security issues to leverage. Becca Wasser, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and Ariane M. Tabatabai, a Middle East fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, report how, as the country’s primary defense partner and security sponsor, America does indeed have a certain influence over Saudi affairs. In fact, MBS himself has signaled his desire for American security support. The Crown Prince proposed a NATO-like security guarantee to the Biden administration, demonstrating his understanding of America’s deterrent power against Iranian aggression and a desire for a Carter-esque guard against a Gulf power grab. By engaging in a relationship with Saudi Arabia, the United States can use it as an opportunity to promote American values and interests such as the protection of human rights and an end to the war in Yemen. If America proceeded to isolate Saudi Arabia, there is little reason to believe that other powers—most likely illiberal powers—would not move in to fill the void. When confronted on the matter, MBS made his stance clear in an interview with the Atlantic: “where is the potential in the world today? It’s in Saudi Arabia. And if you want to miss it, I believe other people in the East are going to be super happy.” Isolating Saudi Arabia may inadvertently push them toward a security agreement with other nations who do not value human rights.
Having returned from Saudi Arabia to a swirling storm of condemnation and commendation, President Biden faces the challenge of next steps. He must play the careful balancing game between his desire for increased Saudi oil production to help Americans while also ensuring the protection of Saudi activists and human rights defenders. Working with Saudi Arabia does not have to be a coin-flip between engagement or ostracism; it can fall on a spectrum with a solution found between complete isolation and open arms. With global eyes waiting for his next step, Biden should use his stage to meet with Saudi human rights activists in the Middle East or their families in the United States to provide for them the airtime and attention that was afforded MBS. There is potential in US-Saudi interactions, potential that can be leveraged to force the Saudi hand as it pertains to human rights. The United States can, within the context of engagement, leverage the Saudi desire for security toward facilitating an end to the war in Yemen which has created one of the worst humanitarian crises and assert pressure on the country’s domestic human rights record.
A world constantly increasing in connection and complication must be handled as it is in order to reach the point it is desired to be. Many worry that the worst is yet to come as it pertains to MBS’s brutality against his opposition, and, as Gause points out, the Crown Prince is “an entrenched and most likely immovable pillar of the Saudi decision-making structure,” whose isolation would only “eliminate Washington’s ability to restrain his behavior abroad and, to a lesser degree, at home.” It is easy to say the United States should have nothing to do with Saudi Arabia—to exile them for their crimes and force a reawakening surrounding their repression of activists—but to say this is to ignore the rise of illiberalism which provides Saudi Arabia with options outside the United States. Indeed, if left unaccompanied by further actions on human rights, Biden may be sending a dangerous signal that wealth and oil can blot out the bloodstains of repression. Therefore, the American President must address MBS’s human rights abuses head on, provide activists a platform, and create a new, third pillar of the US-Saudi relationship which makes the bilateral desires of both countries conditional on human rights protection and accountability. To completely isolate the Kingdom is to demolish the relationship altogether and leave, in the shadows of the wreckage, a leader whose blood-stained hands will remain undeterred and unchanged by ostracism.
