Recalibrate the U.S.-Saudi relationship

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 26, 2021
Contact: press@defensepriorities.org

WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the U.S. declassified an intelligence report on the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, implicating the Saudi crown prince in the murder plot. Defense Priorities Policy Director Benjamin H. Friedman issued the following statement in response:

“We didn’t need this report know Mohammed bin Salman organized Khashoggi’s murder or that Saudi leaders aren’t good humanitarians. But if this report is what the Biden administration needs to make the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia more distant, God bless it. The fact is, no real U.S. interest—not the purported Iranian threat, controlling the price of oil, or anything else—justifies cozy U.S.-Saudi ties, particularly the troops we station there.

“Suggesting we’ll defend Saudi Arabia encourages them to cause destabilizing trouble, as we’ve seen in Yemen. We should treat Saudi Arabia not as an ally but like any other other autocracy that’s bad on human rights: business-like, held at arms length, and definitely not immune from criticism. They can afford to manage their own problems, and we can afford to let them.”

Author

Benjamin
Friedman

Policy Director