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RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia, which may have more to lose from Joe Biden’s election victory in the United States than other Arab states, has taken time to comment after the defeat of Donald Trump, whose policies in the Middle East and their staunch opposition to Iran was backed by Riyadh.
As other Arab states rushed to congratulate the Democratic challenger, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, remained silent on the US vote for hours, even as he sent warm words to the Tanzanian president on his re-election. .
Prince Mohammed’s close personal ties to Trump had provided a vital buffer against a tidal wave of international criticism about Riyadh’s rights record sparked by the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Riyadh’s role in the Yemen war, and the arrest of women activists.
Those areas may now become sticking points between Biden and Saudi Arabia, a major US oil exporter and arms buyer.
The former US vice president pledged in his campaign to reassess ties with the kingdom, demanding more responsibility for Khashoggi’s assassination at the Riyadh consulate in Istanbul and calling for an end to US support for the Yemen war.
“The only thing worse than COVID-19 would be BIDEN-20,” wrote Saudi Twitter user Dr. Muna, while many other Saudi users of the social media platform simply ignored the result in the first hours after the networks Americans called for Biden’s election.
A Saudi political source downplayed the risk of a fight between the kingdom and the United States, pointing to Riyadh’s historic ties to Washington.
But Saudi Arabia’s Okaz newspaper offered a sense of uncertainty about how the future unfolds for the kingdom. “The region is waiting … and preparing … for what happens after Biden’s victory,” he wrote in a cover story.
The kingdom may not have long to wait. Neil Quilliam, an associate member of Britain’s Chatham House think tank, said the Biden administration will likely seek to signal early its dissatisfaction with Saudi Arabia’s domestic and foreign policies.
“The Saudi leadership is concerned that a Biden administration and hostile Congress will carry out a full review of relations, including reevaluation of defense ties, and thus are likely to make positive sounds and move towards the end. Yemen conflict, “he said.
Saudi Arabia was an enthusiastic supporter of Trump’s “maximum pressure” to impose tough sanctions on regional rival Iran. But Biden has said he would revert to a 2015 nuclear pact between world powers and Tehran, a deal negotiated when Biden was vice president in the Barack Obama administration.
Abu Zaid, a cashier at a supermarket in Riyadh, said he hoped Biden would take a different approach. “I am not happy with Biden’s victory, but I hope he learns from Obama’s mistakes and realizes that Iran is a common enemy,” he said.
A Saudi political source said the kingdom had “the ability to deal with any president because the United States is a country of institutions and there is a lot of institutional work between Saudi Arabia and the United States.”
“Relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States are deep, sustainable and strategic and are not prone to change because a president changes,” he said.
Prince Mohammed had denied ordering Khashoggi’s assassination, but in 2019 he acknowledged some personal responsibility by saying it happened under his command. Riyadh has imprisoned eight people for between seven and 20 years in the case.
(Additional report from Aziz El Yaakoubi in Dubai; written by Michael Georgy; edited by Edmund Blair)
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