The Superpower and the Saudis 

The Superpower and the Saudis 

Superpower this week I want to look at joe Biden’s crucial first test of the presidency congratulations president it’s been six weeks since joe bidden became president six weeks to start working on turning campaign promises into policy promises like this the president of Saudi Arabia trump has not been punished the senior Saudi leaders yes and I would make it very clear to them that we are not actually going to sell them more weapons, we are actually going to make them pay the price and make them actually the pariahs that they are. on the campaign trail, this is the Biden administration in power, we’re very focused on the future behavior of uh and that’s

Superpower part of uh why we’ve labeled this not a rift but a recalibration I want to look at how this complex bond between us and Saudi Arabia will not easily broken no matter who is in the white house and how murder and war present this early test for the president, this is a story about a superpower and how the saudis are part of its efforts to stay that way at first glance america and saudi arabia have little common, democracy, authoritarian monarchy, majority Christian, Sunni Muslim one has freedom of speech, the other routinely imprisons activists and their relationship is partly under constant pressure murder in 2018. Mr. Khashoggi was

strangled shortly after entering the Saudi consulate on the 2nd. October, they hooded his head and later dismembered his body jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist and US resident in October 2018, in which he was in Istanbul, Turkey, we see him entering the Saudi the rab consulate was killed and dismembered not long after and our intelligence believes it was approved by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in fact he is the leader of Saudi Arabia and denies any involvement in the killings, although that was the conclusion reached by the UN, it is beyond doubt under international human rights law that responsibility

o if the state of Saudi Arabia is involved, is involved in the killing, is involved in an insufficiently effective investigation, is involved in an insufficiently effective prosecution, and if the state of Saudi Arabia is involved, it would be unlikely, that the crown prince would be involved Well, shortly after the assassination, then-President Donald Trump was asked what do you think about the possible consequences for Saudi Arabia based on these well, it’s going to have to be very strict I think it’s a bad thing but the punishment was not cruel in fact very little was done less than three weeks after the murder then US

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Riyadh and as you can see they were handshakes and smiles with Muhammad bin Salman that set Trump’s approach, veteran reporter Bob Woodward later reported that Donald Trump said of the crown prince I saved his ass I got Congress to leave him alone. doubt it and in any case it is true that the US left Muhammad bin Salman alone joe biden promised to be different and this week senior Democrat Adam Schiff said the biden administration should explore ways to ensure consequences for the brutal murder of mr Kasoji to go beyond those who carried it out to who ordered it, the

crown prince himself has blood on his hands, but what really happened this week is that, first, we have a report confirming that US intelligence believes , that the crown prince approved the murder, and secondly we have confirmation that he will not be targeted, my colleague nick bryant had the story as it developed while they announced what they call the Superpower kasogi ban, which targets foreign nationals who according to intimidated or harassed them or attacked dissidents and journalists. have not imposed sanctions on Muhammad bin Salman, the crown prince will go unpunished, and this development has been sharply criticized Superpower.

Jamal Kasogi wrote for the Washington Post, and its publisher Fred Ryan wrote that it looks as if under the Biden administration despots who momentarily
offer the US strategic value , get one free murder pass, we also heard from Jamal Kasogi’s fiancé, who issued a statement that if the crown prince is not punished, it will forever signal that the main culprit can get away with a murder that will endanger us all and be a stain on our humanity and some we journalists and Biden supporters have come this far, the only difference between trump bragging about saving mgs ass and Biden acting like he has no choice but to save Superpower

‘mbs ass is the only difference is the words surrounding the decision well let’s try to answer, that first there is an official explanation, our goal is to recalibrate the relationship to prevent this from happening again and again and finding zp ways to still work with the Saudi leadership while making it clear where we find the actions unacceptable That may be the goal, but others suggest that there is an evergreen political rule at play here that it’s really easy to pretend and promise to do very hard things when you can’t do anything the moment the estate rules. power in your hand, it’s a lot more complicated to do the things you promised when you were just a campaign guy, and it’s a lot more complicated, which is true for any leader who takes power, but there are also long-term reasons why the Biden Superpower.

administration won’t do just break up with the Saudis and they’ll be back in 1945. the Arab monarch goes aboard the president’s cruiser to be received in impressive and colorful ceremonies here we see the then US president Franklin Roosevelt meet the Saudi king and from this point the US oil companies began to cooperate with the Saudi state, which made a lot of money for both sides, and in addition there were benefits that Susan Maloney of the Brookings Institution

says that every American president in the last 50 years has considered the free flow of oil through the Persian Gulf as a vital national security interest of the United States, and while the import of Saudi oil from the USA is decreasing, the security dimension of this relationship remains very much, America has a series of wars bases in Saudi Arabia and directly across the gulf from Saudi Arabia is Iran, which the US sees as a major security threat, distrusts Iran’s nuclear activities and knows that Iran supports militias in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, America believes it needs Saudi Arabia to confront the Iranians and if you

want an illustration of the mess America is in with Saudi Arabia, while the assassination of Hasaji is definitely one of them, the war in Yemen is another one on one side of this conflict, we have the Yemeni government supported by Saudi Arabia Led coalition on the other side are Iran-backed Houthi rebels and President Biden acted to suspend US military sales to Saudi Arabia for offensive purposes, we will have to’mbs ass is the only difference is the words surrounding the decision well let’s try to answer, that first there is an official explanation, our goal is to recalibrate the relationship to prevent this from happening again and

again and finding zp ways to still work with the Saudi leadership while making it clear where we find the actions unacceptable That may be the goal, but others suggest that there is an evergreen political rule at play here that it’s really easy to pretend and promise to do very hard things when you can’t do anything the moment the estate rules. power in your hand, it’s a lot more complicated to do the things you promised when you were just a campaign guy, and it’s a lot more complicated, which is true for any leader who takes power, but there are also long-term reasons why the Biden administration won’t do just break up with the

Saudis and they’ll be back in 1945. the Arab monarch goes aboard the president’s cruiser to be received in impressive and colorful ceremonies here we see the then US president Franklin Roosevelt meet the Saudi king and from this point the US oil companies began to cooperate with the Saudi state, which made a lot of money for both sides, and in addition there were benefits that Susan Maloney of the Brookings Institution says that every American president in the last 50 years has considered the free flow of oil through the Persian Gulf as a vital national security interest of the United States, and while the import of Saudi oil from the

USA is decreasing, the security dimension of this relationship remains very much, America has a series of wars bases in Saudi Arabia, and directly across the gulf from Saudi Arabia is Iran, which the US sees as a major security threat, distrusts Iran’s nuclear activities and knows that Iran supports militias in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, America believes it needs Saudi Arabia to confront the Iranians and if you want an illustration of the mess America is in with Saudi Arabia, while the assassination of Hisami is definitely one of them, the war in Yemen is another one on one side of this conflict, we have the Yemeni government supported by Saudi Arabia Led coalition on the other side are Iran-backed Houthi rebels and President Biden acted to suspend US military sales to Saudi Arabia for offensive purposes, we will have to