Saudi-US Relationship; Renewed and Reviewed

Saudi-US Relationship; Renewed and Reviewed

 Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (right) was received by John Kerry, Secretary of State of the U.S. (left), in Washington.

To reinvigorate the relationship, Prince Mohammad Bin Salman flew to the US in June for a historic visit. Even before Prince Mohammad had landed in the US, this long-awaited visit was considered historic, as it was the first time he had flown there since assuming the position in January 2015.

The visit was to focus on various issues fuming in the Middle East region.

The powerful Deputy Crown Prince flew to the United States on Monday, 13^th June, to meet with President Barack Obama of the United States and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations to discuss the various unwanted events and developments in the region.

Mohammad bin Salman, also the Defense Minister, came amid a diplomatic row with the United Nations and policy differences with the United States over the war in Syria and relations with Iran.

The visionary Prince, known for working vigorously towards his ambitious plan to revamp the economy of the world's top oil exporter, also traveled to California, where he met with company executives in Silicon Valley, as reported by the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

The Prince’s aim was to discuss ways to strengthen relations between the two nations, which in recent times had held differing views on the ignominious events in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia, a leading supporter of Syrian rebels fighting against President Bashar al-Assad, had been critical of what it saw as foot-dragging by the U.S over efforts to end the conflict.

Saudi Arabia has also been urging Obama for a while now to take a stronger stand on what Riyadh sees as Iran meddling and interfering in the affairs of Arab states and issues related to the Middle East. Though Iran denies any such interference.

Deputy Crown Prince kicked off the visit by meeting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at his residence in Washington on the first day of the trip, and discussed ways to boost Saudi-U.S. relations and other issues.

According to U.S. State Department spokesperson Mark Toner, the meeting between the two parties focused on developments in Yemen and Syria, as well as the importance of fighting terrorism.

Upon arrival in Washington, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was happy to announce that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud had decided to include 2,628 male and female students, currently studying in the U.S. on their own, in the Saudi education mission within the Custodian of the Holy Mosques’ Foreign Scholarship Program.

The Deputy Crown Prince’s visit to the U.S. included three main stops during which he met top U.S. officials to discuss political and economic issues.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on the second day of his U.S. trip, met with officials from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), including CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, as well as representatives from the private sector in the U.S.

As quoted by Asharq al-Awsat, Prince Mohammed, son of King Salman, also met the U.N’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as soon as he landed.

Ban Ki-moon had said that Saudi Arabia had exerted "unacceptable" pressure on the world body after a U.N. report had blacklisted a Saudi-led military coalition for killing children in Yemen, a charge that was denied by the kingdom.

The United Nations removed the coalition from the list after Riyadh threatened to cut its funding for U.N. programs, diplomatic sources said.

The prince also met Obama as well as Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ash Carter in Washington.

State News Agency SPA reported that a number of senior officials, including Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf and Commerce and Investment Minister Majid al-Qusaibi, were part of the delegation accompanying Prince Mohammed, underscoring how serious the three-day meeting was.

Under broad economic reforms announced before leaving for the U.S., which aim to free Saudi Arabia of its dependence on oil exports, the Kingdom is seeking a big increase in foreign investment and tie-ups with foreign companies in non-oil industries including the technology sector.

The main reason of the visit by the high-level Saudi delegation to Washington, California, and New York was that the Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz was intended on investing in the development of Saudi-American relations in all fields and at all levels, including the Kingdom’s image in the Western world which in the recent times seemed to be a little scorned which wasn’t an easy task, as there had been, among many thinkers, journalists, decision-makers, and academics a sense of sympathy towards Iran and automated anger against Saudi Arabia from a while. Moreover, the tag of ‘Wahhabism’ against Saudi Arabia made it worse. Also, the nuclear deal of Iran projected its image as a ‘moderate’ nation covering its abuses in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.

Amid all this battle on ‘public relations’, Saudi Arabia was absent, which sought to pressure the U.S. to choose between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Saudi Arabia, being one of the oldest allies of the U.S., had to bounce back and shed all the allegations of Extremism and Wahhabism by Iran. Also, this meeting was much needed to dispel the image of Sunni Islam as the enemy of the West.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, all this while, remained silent and expected that relations between the two close nations would improve, but it proved futile.

This required a multidimensional approach that was not confined to US institutions, and Prince Mohammad Bin Salman included Arab experts who were familiar with both Arab and American cultures and translated it into new understandings and better relations.

This was evident after the recent visit, when Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute, a think tank focused on the Middle East, said, “He is notionally number three in the hierarchy, but effectively he’s number one,” referring to the young and dynamic Prince.

The deputy crown Prince was welcomed gleefully along with his initiatives and ideas for change in both form and substance. After all, the young and vibrant prince has combined modernity and tradition, and appears comfortable with himself. The 30-year-old confident prince intends to leave an impression that challenges all the odds and prejudices.

The main brain behind Vision 2030 is undoubtedly the one who is also implementing the very mechanism of this vision, which is an achievement in itself.

Aware of the pitfalls but unafraid of digging deeper, he is the prince who dared to seek radical change in the relationship between the citizen and the state, in a quiet revolution with pragmatic goals and approaches. The Vision 2030 plan is nothing short of astonishing, a collective workshop toward a liberal economic and social governance replacing the stale patterns of nationalization, rent-seeking, and dependency.

This is what Prince Mohammed bin Salman carried to Washington, California, and New York: a man ready to modernize the Kingdom at all levels and to keep pace with the qualitative requirements of this technological age.

Officially, the Deputy Crown Prince was welcomed at the highest levels, with more of a family reception. The U.S. comportment seemed to have softened tensions, aiming to foster warmer relations than the norm under Obama, conceivably sparing the next administration from inheriting the burdens of the current administration’s policies.

The idea behind the meet in the Washington was to restore the old US relationship with Saudi Arabia, which had gone through a difficult phase because of the result of the fundamental shift pursued by the United States administration in the US-Iranian relations without involving or for that matter even discussing with the Gulf countries, the age old allies of the US and probably to clarify their future position in the new paradigm.

The 30-year-old prince had something more in his mind. This time, he wanted the bond between the 2 nations to be stronger than before and focused on understanding, or rather, a more undictated one.

Usually, Saudi Arabia has a reactive policy instead of taking the initiative in propaganda wars, thus appearing on the defensive side.

Indications are clear: the young leader, along with his cabinet, is undertaking serious self-reviews of the results of traditional strategies and the requirements of modern ones. Even though this is in its early stages, the efforts appear to be more fruitful compared to the national transformation vision.

This was a much-needed step in changing the Kingdom’s presumed image by the outside world, as there is undeniably an ongoing strategy by Iran, Russia, the Syrian regime, and Hezbollah, who are ready to double the amount of harm they have inflicted on Saudi Arabia, which is a part of their program that started years ago with huge funding.

As per the reports by one of the major media firms, Quantum, there are a large number of entities involved in the anti-Saudi propaganda. The Russian propaganda machine is working endlessly towards this by spending nearly $450 million annually, employing 600 people, which reaches out in 30 languages since its inception nearly 5 years ago. The worst of all is the Iranian mechanism that spends twice as much as Russia, almost $900 million annually, to malign the image of the Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, which has been a point of deep contention between the White House and the Royal Court, is the target of these propagandists. US, which has backed the Royals to fight against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels taking over Sanaa, was portrayed evilly to the outside world.

There are signs that the war may be winding down and Saudi Arabia and its allies may be shifting focus to tackling Al Qaeda, even though the Houthis remain in control of most of the central and northern highlands.

Though the United Arab Emirates announced "war is over" in Yemen, there was an open possibility of a continued counterterrorism role.

The propagandists have been targeting Saudi Arabia for a while and are trying their utmost negative zeal to link terrorism and Saudi Arabia.

Their narcissism towards Bashar Al-Assad as a ‘fighter’ against ISIS and terrorism and the only option to topple ISIS needed a backlash from the Kingdom and had to be scrapped off, and who better than the vivacious young Prince could have done it. Indeed!

The two have been working intensely towards moving the limelight from the much distorted Syrian condition towards the role of Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war that is headed under the Defense Minister. Portraying it as even worse than the duo's action in Syria.

This boils down to the fact that Saudi Arabia needs to adopt two separate yet complementary strategies: first, by challenging the above mechanism of its opponents while focusing on and countering it in the best possible manner worldwide. Secondly, present the ideology of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the achievements it has made so far, along with highlights of what Riyadh will deliver in the coming years.

The Deputy Crown Prince is undoubtedly the modern face of present-day Saudi Arabia, who, along with Adel Al-Jubeir, Foreign Affairs Minister, is politically open and not at all skeptical about any issues related to the Kingdom and its relations with the outside world, unlike the previous generation of the Royals. He has undoubtedly transformed the Kingdom’s age-old image of a conservative Islamist nation to a much more technically sound and modern nation along with its rooted Islamic principles.

These two have been quite vocal about the country's statistics and financial condition, and about how they would address them in the best possible manner. Yet, this year’s budget resulted in a deficit of nearly $300 billion, the first time ever in the history of the oil-rich Kingdom.

In the country’s vision of 2030, political openness, economic privatization, and social diversity are the highlights, together towards a new, bold, and modern philosophy that challenges all odds, isolation, and the aspirations for regional hegemony adopted by Tehran. It even dares to challenge the feeling of xenophobia towards the Kingdom by the allies of Iran.

Propagandists in the region, like Iran, cannot accept the liberal Saudi Arabia, especially because of the image of “Wahhabi-fundamentalist” that was linked to a part of its society. Therefore, changing impressions will be an arduous task, but not an impossible one if a conscious strategy is adopted.

This is what the young Saudi Prince took along with his delegation to Washington, California, and New York.

The reaction also seemed positive from Washington.

They have the reassurance that the Deputy Crown Prince is the key contributor to Saudi future, the architect of Vision 2030, and a man with extraordinary executive powers.

While in California, he aimed to showcase his futuristic plans to the man who was the future of the Islamic Kingdom and had decided that his country must join the technological revolution as a partner and contributor.

On the other hand, businessmen from New York and renowned financial institutions geared up for the historic event when 5 percent of Saudi Aramco’s shares were offered in the local and international markets for the first time in Saudi history, in what is probably the largest IPO in the world’s history.

All this to balance development and investment and move away from its oil addiction.

The hard work of the Prince would surely pay off, though the change wouldn’t be immediate; slowly and steadily, the image of Saudi Arabia would transform from what it was to what the Vision 2030 strategy would make it for the United States of America.

This could be seen in the statement by James Smith, former US ambassador to the Kingdom, who appreciated the Vision 2030 efforts and said: “Given their huge investment in education over the last decade, if they are not able to move away from a state-run economy and develop a private sector, you are not going to have the jobs that young people need”.

Moreover, the image of the visionary, moderate and vibrant young prince has challenged the racist ideologue of the general American public, which had classified all young Muslims as radical extremists at a time when Prince’s visit and the terrorist attack in Orlando by Omar Mateen, an Afghan-American, claimed by ISIS collided.

Indeed, the image of the reformist with visionary aspirations shattered the claims by American hardliners that all young Muslims are nihilistic terrorists.

The young Prince has given back to extremist radicalism as well as racist radicalism, both of which are dangerous. A much needed come back.

While Omar Mateen destroyed what Islamic moderation had built over time, it is also feared to be used and exploited by hardliners in the US to support fantastical ideas adopted by the Republican candidate Donald Trump, doing nothing but inflaming emotions on both sides of the political divide.

The fear was dismissed when the young Prince met the US President in Washington on the 5^th day of his visit to the White House.

He also discussed with Deputy Chief of Protocol Mark Walsh during his arrival at the White House. Further, he swept in the West Wing with a band of aides for hour-long talks. Breaking all bad.

The constructive attitude change towards the Kingdom could be seen in that he was among the very few who had the privilege of meeting the US President in the Oval Office. An honor rarely anyone receives.

Also holding talks with the CIA director, the Secretaries of State, Defense, Treasury, Commerce, and Energy, along with the leaders of Congress, showed how pragmatic the Kingdom wanted its age-old ally to be.

“The meetings were very, very positive. I believe there was a commonality in terms of visions and views”, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir expressed after the meeting.

Relatively unknown in Washington, Prince Mohammad’s week-long visit wooed the U.S., as evidenced by his gestures.