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The Strategic Wisdom of Maintaining U.S.-Saudi Ties

(New York Times) Michael Doran and Tony Badran - Every president since Harry Truman has aligned with unsavory Middle Eastern rulers in the service of national interests. President Trump understands the centrality of Riyadh in the effort to counter a rising Iran and he is rightly unwilling to allow the murder of Mr. Khashoggi to imperil that strategy. The Saudis are not the moral equivalents of Iranians. The Saudis and their oil have played a pivotal role in American economic strategies. Trump acknowledged that the Saudis are assisting him with stabilizing global oil prices as he seeks to quash Iranian oil sales. Whatever Prince Mohammed's faults may be, he actively supports the American regional order that the Iranians openly seek to destroy. The critics are asking us to believe that the priority for stabilizing the Middle East today is distancing the U.S. from one of its oldest allies. This is a dangerous assumption that is not borne out by experience. The murder of Mr. Khashoggi was a brutal and grotesque act. The U.S. has registered its feelings loudly and clearly by putting sanctions on the 17 men who were directly involved in the killing. Punishing the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia will not bring justice for Mr. Khashoggi, nor will it make Saudi Arabia a more dependable ally. It will simply diminish the influence of the U.S. and embolden its enemies. Mr. Doran is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. Mr. Badran is research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2018-11-22 00:00:00
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