Aaron David Miller
In February 1945, an ailing President Franklin Roosevelt returning from the Yalta Conference went out of his way to meet with Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, founder of the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia, at the Great Bitter Lake along the Suez Canal. FDR may have been the first U.S. president to be enamored by Saudi royalty, compelled by its oil reserves or taken with its purported leadership in the Arab world—but he wouldn’t be the last. Six of his successors would host Saudi kings in Washington. But perhaps no president’s relationship with a Saudi leader would be more consequential or worrisome than Donald Trump’s with Mohammed bin Salman, the forty-year-old crown prince who Trump will host in Washington this week for economic and security discussions, including a bilateral security pact and normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Like his predecessors, Trump is besotted by Saudi Arabia. But he also is comfortable with its authoritarians, oblivious to its terrible human rights record, compelled by the financial opportunities there, and driven by the desire for an Israeli-Saudi deal that could offer him a chance at the Nobel Peace Prize. During the Washington meetings, Trump won’t press MBS on human rights nor expect too much on normalization. Trump should understand that for MBS, this visit isn’t about normalization with Israel; it’s about normalizing his reputation as a serious international leader and valued U.S. partner.
No comments:
Post a Comment