Don’t Write Off the U.S.-Saudi Relationship Just Yet

Don’t Write Off the U.S.-Saudi Relationship Just Yet
Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, May 15, 2016, Jiddah, Saudi Arabia (Saudi Press Agency via AP).

When Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, delivered her first speech after the weekend massacre at an Orlando LGBT nightclub, she listed a predictable collection of problems contributing to the killings, from the availability of assault rifles in the U.S. to the proliferation of extremist ideologies emanating from the Middle East. Then she delivered a surprisingly blunt message to America’s Arab allies: It is “long past time,” she declared, for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar to stop their citizens from funding extremist organizations, as well as from “supporting radical schools and mosques” that send young people into extremism.

The timing of the message was coincidentally potent. It came on the same day that the powerful Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in the U.S., in a period of uncertainty over the precise future of relations between Washington and Riyadh.

The awkwardness of the relationship became even more evident when that night, the visiting prince dined at the Georgetown home of Secretary of State John Kerry. The two reportedly discussed the shooting and reiterated their commitment to “countering extremism.” The sentiment was diplomatically appropriate, but the fact that Saudi Arabia executes people simply for being homosexual gave it a visible patina of hypocrisy, highlighting again the gulf separating the countries.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article as well as three free articles per month. You'll also receive our free email newsletter to stay up to date on all our coverage:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having your own personal researcher and analyst for news and events around the globe. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of 15,000+ articles
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday
  • Weekly in-depth reports on important issues and countries
  • Daily links to must-read news, analysis, and opinion from top sources around the globe, curated by our keen-eyed team of editors
  • Your choice of weekly region-specific newsletters, delivered to your inbox.
  • Smartphone- and tablet-friendly website.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review