The US government is beginning to question our ties with Saudi Arabia given their many exposed human rights violations. Congress recently proposed a resolution for the Biden administration to gather information and submit a report to congress detailing Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. This resolution was passed under a provision of the Foreign Assistance Act where congress can vote to request a human rights report on a country. If the resolution passes, it will be the first time this provision will have been used, as well as forcing the Biden administration to hand over it’s report on Saudi Arabia, in which congress can vote on whether or not to completely cut security assistance, reduce/restructure security assistance, or maintain the same amount of security assistance as before. Given Saudi Arabia is a large business partner of the US via US buying oil and SA buying weapons, the Biden administration reports could have drastic impacts on the US economy as well as SA’s economy.
The US and Saudi Arabian ties were founded early in the 20th century, with ties only growing with time due to our increasing oil consumption, as well as various instances of involvement in the Middle East due to our attempts at stabilizing the region. Given our long history of mutually beneficial relations and the US’s massive requirements of oil, the US has potentially overlooked certain human rights violations committed by Saudi Arabia in the past. Specifically during the late 90’s to just recently, the US’s presence in the Middle East was largely aided by a military agreement in which SA agreed to house US troops and support US military bases. For example, Operation Desert Shield, phase one of two of the first war in Iraq, consisted entirely of the US setting up strategic military positions, in which Saudi Arabia played a huge part in supporting. However, looking at modern times, the US has almost completely withdrawn from Middle Eastern conflict zones and thus military support from Saudi Arabia is no longer necessary. To add, the breakthrough of extracting oil from shale rock means that now the US can support its own oil needs, potentially becoming an oil exporter in the future. All in all, the two major components of our recent relations with Saudi Arabia have been borderline nullified. Therefore, I believe the government is both finally fed up with Saudi Arabia getting away with its history of human rights violations, as well as upkeeping the US’s international image as a “protector of democracy and international human rights advocacy.” However, considering that the SA is such a large consumer of US weapon systems, I believe that if the resolution passes and the Biden administration follows through with a report, the most “punishment” that Saudi Arabia will receive is a restructuring of our security assistance deal because altogether removing our security ties with Saudi Arabia is guaranteed to damage relations as well as almost completely diminish a potentially powerful ally in the Middle East.
To tie back to class, the Middle East is a shatterbelt region and will be for the foreseeable future. The Middle East’s power dynamic used to consist of major oil producing countries and an almost constant US oversight and pressure. Now that the US is withdrawn, the power vacuum left in the region may be shifting towards Turkey, China, and Russia, as their presences within the Middle East have either stayed the same or increased.