Until earlier this year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (known as MBS) was one of the great outcasts of world geopolitics.
Since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, killed in 2018 inside the consulate of the Arab country in Istanbul, Turkey (a crime that, according to a CIA report, would have been approved by MBS), heads of state from the West and from allied countries have been avoiding meet the prince.
US President Joe Biden, in his victorious campaign for the White House in 2020, promised to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” if he won the election. One of the exceptions was Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who met with the Saudi prince during the 2019 G20 summit in Japan.
There is nothing like one day after another: high inflation around the world, in which rising oil prices play a major role, and the war in Ukraine, which has led the West to seek an end to imports of Russian hydrocarbons, have done what once rejected MBS to become once again the darling of governments that defend human rights (at least in speech) around the world – these, as always happened in their relationship with the Saudis, once again disregarded the violations practiced by the Riyadh monarchy.
Biden himself visited MBS in July to call for an increase in oil production and thus force prices down. Days later, the Crown Prince visited Emmanuel Macron in Paris, and the French President made the same request.
Both were ignored: in the first week of October, the Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries plus Russia (OPEC+) decided to cut world production by 2 million barrels per day, which represents 2% of what is produced in the whole world. world. In practice, Saudi Arabia leads the pack.
The United States announced that it would “review” its relationship with Riyadh after the breakup. In November, however, the US Department of Justice presented a legal document to the federal court for the District of Columbia, to recommend that bin Salman be declared immune, given his status as Saudi prime minister (a position he assumed in September, although he already governed the country in practice), in the case of the death of Khashoggi.
The Biden administration claimed that this measure does not represent a rapprochement with MBS and that such immunity is standard for heads of state and government and foreign ministers while they hold such positions.
In any case, Biden and Macron’s approval of MBS as a ruler with whom dialogue should be maintained seems to have made other leaders follow the same path.
Last month, the new British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, met with bin Salman at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. According to a spokesman for Downing Street, in addition to oil, other topics were discussed.
“The leaders also shared their concern over threats to peace and security in the Middle East, including Iran’s destabilizing activity in the region,” it said. “The Prime Minister welcomed the strong trade relations and defense and security collaboration between our two countries, and the leaders pledged to pursue opportunities to deepen investment ties in strategic sectors.”
Khashoggi’s death was not addressed at the meeting – unlike what happened in the conversation between Biden and MBS in July. Months earlier, one of Sunak’s predecessors, Boris Johnson, had already met with bin Salman.
Laughs at the opening of the Cup
Also in November, the Saudi prince visited the president of South Korea (an historic US ally), Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul, who said that companies from the country could participate in megaprojects in Saudi Arabia, including Neom, a futuristic city and carbon-free to be built on the Red Sea coast.
The definitive return of MBS to the great stage of world geopolitics was his presence at the opening of the World Cup in Qatar, on November 20, when he was seen laughing in the tribune of the Al Bayt stadium with the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino.
For Abdulaziz al-Sager, president of the Gulf Research Center in Jeddah, pragmatism ended up prevailing, mainly after the change in the Americans’ position. These think about oil, but also mentioned the need to dialogue with Riyadh to curb Russian, Chinese and Iranian influences in the Middle East.
“The United States tried to limit the importance and role of the kingdom regionally and internationally, but, first, it found that this goal was unattainable and, second, that it harmed its own interests,” argued Sager, in an interview with Reuters.
“Therefore, there is a process of retreat from the Americans [na atitude] to take negative positions in relation to the kingdom”, added Sager, who highlighted that the very nature of the Saudi State requires this pragmatism: “It is not possible to make a separation between dealing with the leadership and dealing with the State, especially in a hereditary monarchy” .
#power #oil #Saudi #prince #pariah #darling #governments #world