Don't Freak Out about the Saudis

Despite its controversial past, the kingdom has come a long way

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No one will disagree that October 2, 2018, was a fateful day for the history of the oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  On that Tuesday, exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a cousin of Princess Diana’s doomed lover Dodi Fayed, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a divorce certificate lest his upcoming marriage to a Turkish woman be bigamous.  Khashoggi had been a journalist for the Muslim Brotherhood-related publication Middle East Eye and, more notably, The Washington Post.  Inside the consulate, Saudi officials, according to multiple sources, forcibly restrained Khashoggi and knocked him out with a powerful sedative with the intention of kidnapping the journalist back to his come country for trial.  Instead of merely sedating Khashoggi, the sedative’s potency proved overwhelming and killed him.  In a grisly finale to the event, Khashoggi’s body was dismembered and disposed of.  Since Khashoggi’s death, Saudi Arabia’s reputation, already under strain, has not fully recovered.  However, I will try to make the case that we in the West should not be so harshly critical of the kingdom, and not just because of its famed oil wealth.

It is no secret that Western media portrayal of Saudi Arabia has been overwhelmingly negative for many years, a trend that began in the aftermath of the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  Not only were 15 of the 19 hijackers on that tragic day Saudi Citizens, but so was the mastermind, Osama Bin Laden.  Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda was very likely a product of the hardline Islam that defined Saudi Arabia for decades. A 2016 FBI report, declassified in 2021, went further by uncovering that multiple Saudi diplomats and intelligence officers had meetings with some of the hijackers in the months leading up to the terror attacks.  While the Saudi government has for years denied any involvement, the stench of this evidence is hard to ignore.  Another problem for Saudi Arabia’s reputation has been its medieval record on women’s rights.  Before 2017, Saudi women were not allowed to drive a vehicle, receive healthcare without the approval of a male guardian, or even enter a sports stadium. 

There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia has been behind many activities that Americans find appalling.  However, I believe that despite these controversies, we in the United States should really consider giving the Saudis a break.  There is one major reason for that- the events of the last several years (post-Khashoggi) has given me the strong conviction that despite the cultural differences between us, Saudi Arabia, unlike the Islamic Republic of Iran, is not a fundamentally evil, destabilizing, or otherwise disruptive force in its region and in the world.  In 2021, Saudi Arabia ended its self-defeating blockade of the Islamist-leaning and mega-wealthy Arab nation of Qatar, de-escalating the dispute from heated confrontation to friendly rivalry. Furthermore, less than three weeks before the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault on Israel, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) said that he was prepared to take the risk of opening ties with Israel, a prospect once seen as taboo in his country.  Even after the controversy of Israel’s military campaign against the Gaza Strip, MBS has only put the talks on ice, rather than breaking them off completely.  Finally, the Saudis have been actively mediating between the US and Iran to prevent regional escalation during the current Middle East Crisis.

For the past decade, many Americans have taken to reprimanding the Saudis for their military campaign in Yemen without truly understanding who was being targeted- the Yemeni extremist group Ansar Allah, more commonly known in the West as the Houthis.  Before the Houthis began resorting to piracy against commercial ships in retaliation for American support of Israel, they regularly shot drones and other rockets into Saudi Arabia, damaging Saudi oil infrastructure and airports as well as endangering Saudi civilians.  While an exhausted Saudi Arabia was forced to sign a ceasefire with the Houthis in 2022, the Saudis still are wary of the Houthis, and likely feel more than a little vindication now that the US is bombing them.  

Saudi Arabia learned a lesson far earlier than we did: that the Houthis are unreasonable fanatics who are completely fine with the idea of martyrdom.  If I were president, I would feel compelled to acknowledge Saudi concerns after the years of condemnation.

Much of Saudi Arabia’s internal reforms that have given women more rights and opened up the oil-rich kingdom have been MBS’ brainchild.  Despite resistance from Saudi Arabia’s hardline clerics, MBS has decided to make the momentous shift in women’s rights.  As part of his famous Vision 2030 to modernize Saudi Arabia and remove its reputation of hardline Islam, MBS has taken small, but significant steps to pull the country out of the 13th century.  Besides lifting the infamous prohibition for women to drive, MBS has allowed for Saudi women to go outside without wearing a veil, obtain a divorce, and apply for a passport without the approval of a male guardian.  While these may seem elementary to us in the West, for Saudi Arabia, those are significant milestones.  And we should recognize them.

I hope that many of you now realize that while the United States and Saudi Arabia have tremendous social, political, and cultural differences, our interests are aligned in more ways than they are not.  Saudi Arabia, and its crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman have proven themselves, having learned a lesson from the Khashoggi scandal, to be responsible actors on the world stage.  MBS appears to have learned his lesson that murdering opponents on foreign soil or blockading a neighboring country are unwise and unacceptable.   Even compared with Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has firmly put its past of hardline Islam, Al Qaeda, butchering critics, and other extreme transgressions behind it.  Thus, I can say with confidence that we should treat the oil-rich and moderately Islamic kingdom not as a rogue actor, but instead as a good-faith partner.