US-Saudi ties won’t improve under new president: Report

The frayed ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia are not likely to improve even after President Barack Obama leaves office next year and the new president takes charge of the White House, a new report says.

The US-Saudi relations have become strained over a number of issues, mainly because of the Iran nuclear agreement, Saudi aggression in Yemen, and the belligerent foreign policy of King Salman's regime, The Hill reported on Saturday.

Obama’s chilly reception in Riyadh this week was the culmination of long lingering tension between the two countries, according to the newspaper. 

The report said the US-Saudi ties have worsened since Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz ascended to the throne, and incorporated more radical elements into his cabinet.

Under the new king, Riyadh not only launched an offensive in Yemen, increased support for terrorists in Syria, but also fiercely opposed the historic nuclear accord between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries --    the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany.

“It’s not like it was two years ago, the state of the relationship,” Republican Senator Bob Corker, the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, told The Hill.

On Wednesday, King Salman personally greeted leaders from neighboring Arab states for the annual (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council summit, but sent the Riyadh governor and Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubair to receive Obama at the airport, which was broadly viewed as a snub.

The king’s absence at the airport was the most visible indication of the frosty relations between the two old allies, according to the report.

Obama on Thursday acknowledged “tactical differences” in some areas between Riyadh and Washington, but added, “I think that a lot of the strain was always overblown.”

Salman has a ‘harder edge’

Former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Robert Jordan told the newspaper the differences are not new. “We’ve had ups and downs over the years.”

Jordan, who recently wrote a book about his time as ambassador, said Salman “has an harder edge to him, which has probably troubled some members of the administration and Congress.”  

“I expect there will be an effort on both sides to kind of get things on a better track,” said Perry Cammack, an associate at the Carnegie Endorsement for International Peace and former State Department staffer.  

“On some level, it might be successful,” he added. “But that doesn’t change the overall arc. I don’t think, actually, things are going back to where they were in, say, the 80s or 70s.”

“I think some of these structural things are permanent,” the analyst stated.

Saudi support for terrorists

More recently, the US-Saudi ties also became frayed over the monarchy’s support for al-Qaeda terrorists, and its alleged Saudi involvement in the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, DC.

A number of former US lawmakers recently called on the White House to declassify documents that shed light on Saudi Arabia’s possible complicity in the September 11 attacks.

The former congressmen say the 28-page classified document proves two Saudi nationals who were behind the 9/11 attacks received support and assistance from Riyadh while in the United States.

The 28-page report is part of a larger Congressional report on 9/11 released in 2002 and called the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities, which was conducted by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Reports say the Obama administration and intelligence officials are now weighing whether to declassify the remaining 28 pages.

In addition, some US senators have pushed for a bill that would allow victims of the terror attacks to sue the Saudi ruling family in US courts for any role in the 9/11 attacks.

The Obama administration has aligned itself with Riyadh on the legislation, and threatened to veto it.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has threatened to pull hundreds of billions of dollars from the US economy if Congress passes the bill, which if approved, would take away immunity from foreign governments in cases “arising from a terrorist attack that kills an American on American soil.”

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