[ad_1]
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia does not expect any major change in its relationship with the United States under Joe Biden, a senior official told CNN, despite the president-elect vowing to turn the kingdom into an “outcast.”
The OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has appeared distrustful of Biden after he promised a tough stance against the kingdom for its human rights failures.
But Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, dismissed the idea.
“We treat the President of the United States as a friend, whether he’s a Republican or a Democrat,” Jubeir told CNN in an interview published over the weekend.
“President-elect Biden has been in the (US) Senate for 35 years, he has tremendous experience … I don’t expect there to be a major change in terms of US foreign policy.”
The comment comes as Saudi Arabia hosts the G20 leaders’ summit this weekend, a first for an Arab nation, as global activists seek to draw attention to the kingdom’s human rights record.
Saudi Arabia has largely escaped American censorship under Trump, who, along with his son-in-law Jared Kushner, has enjoyed a personal relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the kingdom.
Trump’s defeat leaves Prince Mohammed vulnerable to new scrutiny from the kingdom’s closest Western ally.
That could leave the crown prince isolated amid economic challenges that jeopardize his reform agenda, a devastating war in neighboring Yemen and pockets of internal opposition to his government.
During his election campaign, Biden threatened to make Saudi Arabia “the pariah that it is.”
Saudi observers dismiss the Democratic leader’s campaign speeches on the kingdom as bluster, noting that Trump also struck a hostile note in his 2016 campaign before swiftly closing in on his rulers.
“We deal with presidents once they take office and we have great interests with the United States,” Jubeir said.
“We work together on global economic security, on energy security, on financial issues, and we are key in terms of the Muslim world. These interests are huge for us and for the United States ”.
