“I would hear it’s not there yet, and ‘we still have questions and we still worry will this administration withdraw?’” Ross says. The message from Riyadh, he says, was “‘don’t take us for granted and think that you can just dictate to us, and don’t humiliate us’”.īut Ross adds there was also an acknowledgment of the longtime strategic relationship between the countries. When former US diplomat Dennis Ross, a veteran of the Middle East who has pushed for “balanced” relationship with Saudi Arabia, recently visited Riyadh, he detected a sense of “injured pride”. High on their agenda will be a push for more formal, institutionalised security partnerships with the US, including improved intelligence and military co-operation to tackle the menace of missiles and drones.Ī facility used for landing and unloading crude and refined oil at the North Pier Terminal, operated by Saudi Aramco, in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia © Simon Dawson/Bloomberg The White House had previously considered a meeting between Biden and MBS at last October’s G20 summit in Rome, but those tentative plans were scuppered when the prince chose not to attend, say people familiar with the matter.Įmboldened by their leverage in energy markets, both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are likely to want signs of tangible support, not simply reassurances about US commitments.

Some of the president’s aides have for months pressed Biden to put aside his moral outrage and push for rapprochement, arguing that it is worth accepting the trade-offs of engaging with MBS in exchange for energy stability.

Biden described the move as a “positive”. Saudi Arabia appeared to smooth the path for a potential meeting this month by finally agreeing to a modest increase in crude output with its producer allies in Opec+. “This is an opportunity for the US to reset the table . . . to make the region more comfortable and be self-aware about why their partners are concerned about the American commitment,” says one person briefed on the Gulf discussions. Washington needs help to limit the impact of the war in Ukraine on oil prices while the Gulf states remain heavily dependent on US military assistance, from missile defences to fighter jets. The White House announced on Tuesday that Biden will visit Saudi Arabia next month, where he will meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the day-to-day leader of the world’s top oil exporter. Instead of a rupture, however, the US and its Gulf allies have decided to try to mend fences. “The bad news for them is when the US mobilises for someone else, it’s a slap in the face.” They see America is back, not checking out and can mobilise when it wants to,” says Sanam Vakil, a Gulf expert at Chatham House. “The war in Ukraine has been a blessing and a curse for the Gulf. Just as Russia’s aggression has injected fresh impetus into the transatlantic alliance, it has exposed the fraying nature of the two Gulf states’ decades-long partnership with Washington and brought into sharp focus tensions over the bedrock on which it was built: US security assurances to the oil-rich nations in return for a commitment to stable global energy markets. It was angered by the Gulf leaders’ resistance to pump more oil to damp high energy prices and their refusal to distance themselves from Vladimir Putin, with whom they have nurtured closer ties in recent years. While the Saudis and the Emiratis were smarting over security issues, the Biden administration had its own frustrations.

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