In this Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015 photo provided by the Saudi Press Agency, President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdul Aziz stand during the arrival ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015.

In this Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015 photo provided by the Saudi Press Agency, President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdul Aziz stand during the arrival ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. AP Photo/SPA

In Increasingly Turbulent Middle East, US-Saudi Partnership Is Indispensable

A former EUCOM deputy commander looks makes the case for even tighter bonds with Riyadh.

When President Obama travels to Saudi Arabia later this month for a summit meeting with Gulf Arab leaders, he will need to reassure these longstanding American allies that the United States intends to stand by its friends in the increasingly turbulent Middle East. 

President Obama’s visit comes in the midst of complex and alarming challenges—sectarian bloodbaths, ethnic hostilities, regional rivalries, big-power meddling, and international terrorism—that demand urgent U.S. engagement.

Supported by Iran and Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is slaughtering his own people. The terrorists of ISIL have conquered a wide swath of territory in Syria and Iraq. In Yemen, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are battling to overthrow a government supported by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies. Instability and political paralysis persist in Lebanon. The Israelis and Palestinians are still at odds.

Into this simmering cauldron, add the recent nuclear agreement between the United States and Iran, which lifted sanctions against the Islamic Republic and gave it an additional $100 billion to invest in its military, its proxies, and its expansionism and trouble-making.

This toxic mix threatens to ignite warfare throughout the Middle East, inspire terrorism worldwide, and destabilize global energy markets. And like it or not, these crises call for more, not less, American engagement.

Read more: Start Preparing for the Collapse of the Saudi Kingdom

Related: There’s Far More to the Saudi-Iran Feud Than Sunnis-Vs.-Shia

Now as in the past, American interests in the Middle East include preserving the peace, ensuring reliable energy sources, combating transnational terrorism, and preventing an adversarial nation from attaining regional hegemony.

The answer need not always be more U.S. troops. But to advance these enduring goals, the U.S. must reinforce its relationship with Saudi Arabia—a longstanding force for regional stability and a crucial counterweight to an enriched and emboldened Iran.

With the growth of ISIL and the strengthening of Iran, the Kingdom’s strategic role in the region is more essential than ever.

For seven decades, Saudi Arabia has been our close strategic partner, steadying world oil supplies and prices while helping to maintain peace and stability. From the Cold War to the present, Saudi interests have aligned not only with the U.S. but also with our friends in the region, including Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and the other Gulf States – and even, at times, Israel.

But preserving the Saudi partnership is a matter of necessity, not nostalgia. With the growth of ISIL and the strengthening of Iran, the Kingdom’s strategic role in the region is more essential than ever.

Itself targeted by terrorists such as ISIL and Al-Qaeda, Saudi Arabia launched a coalition of 34 countries—mostly Muslim and ranging from Egypt to Turkey to Malaysia—to combat these international extremist organizations. Recently, Saudi Arabia offered to send ground troops to Syria to fight ISIL.

It is difficult to imagine a solution to the Syrian civil war without the support of Saudi Arabia, a predominantly Sunni country that has been an outspoken opponent of the Assad regime and Iran’s military role in propping him up. Similarly, while Iran continues to call for the destruction of Israel, Saudi Arabia has long advocated a comprehensive settlement between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Yes, Americans should be critical of some Saudi practices, particularly the treatment of women and religious minorities. 

The U.S. needs to recognize that Saudi Arabia feels increasingly threatened, potentially imperiling regional and international security. Contributing to Saudi Arabia’s anxieties are the severe decline in oil prices, the collapse of many Middle Eastern governments during the Arab Spring, ISIL’s intentions to overthrow the governments of the Gulf States and Iran’s stoking of sectarian rifts in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and, more recently, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia itself. 

Without American reassurance and support, Saudi Arabia will be tempted to act on its own and seek new allies. There has been talk of the Saudis seeking to pursue their own nuclear program, as well as reaching out to Russia for military and diplomatic support. Such actions could compound the chaos in the Middle East, while threatening the US-Saudi alliance that has been a foundation for regional and international security.

Instead of straining our relationship with Saudi Arabia, the U.S. should strengthen it, from security to diplomacy, economics and support for the far-reaching reforms now underway.

Yes, Americans should be critical of some Saudi practices, particularly the treatment of women and religious minorities. But we should also remember that the Saudis are a youthful people, with 70 percent of the population under age 30 and millions engaged with social media.

Such a society is poised for change. In recent years, women have begun to vote and to seek and win public office, while a new generation of leaders is assuming positions of responsibility. These young reformers are typified by the 30-year-old Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who has proposed programs to diversify the economy and privatize state-owned enterprises.

The U.S. should encourage Saudi Arabia’s emerging leaders as they move forward with reforms, from women’s rights to free-market economics. A changing Saudi Arabia can be a catalyst for peaceful change, not violent conflicts, and the United States should nurture our partnership and encourage this evolution.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.