Donald Trump Knows the Importance of U.S.-Saudi Ties | Opinion

Eighty years ago this week, President Franklin Roosevelt and Saudi King Abdulaziz met onboard the USS Quincy in the Suez Canal. Their conversation began a relationship that has revolved around oil supplies and regional security ever since. President Harry Truman soon told Abdulaziz that "no threat to your kingdom could occur which would not be of immediate concern to the United States."

Many American presidents have repeated that commitment. In his first term, President Donald Trump's first foreign trip was to Riyadh. His first phone call to a foreign leader in his second term was to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

Is Trump wise to devote so much attention to Saudi Arabia? There have certainly been many very troubling episodes in the Saudi American relationship. The 1973 Arab oil embargo caused massive disruption to the American economy. Most of hijackers who flew into the World Trade Center towers were Saudis. In 2015, the Saudis launched a war against Yemen. Three years later, Saudi agents murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Many times, arms sales to Saudi Arabia have sparked controversy in Congress. Considering that the United States now produces more oil than Saudi Arabia, is this relationship still worth preserving?

The Arab oil embargo was a direct result of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. With the Egyptian and Syrian armies facing defeat, Saudi Arabia's King Faisal came under enormous public pressure, both at home and abroad, to do something for the Arab cause. While his oil Minister Zaki Yamani was able to block the most extreme proposals made by OPEC members Libya and Iraq, the king eventually agreed to reduce Saudi oil production and end all exports to the United States. However, even then King Faisal secretly allowed oil shipments to continue to the U.S military. During the past 52 years, the Saudis have never again used oil as a weapon for overtly political purposes.

Instead, because they want oil to remain an attractive energy source, the Saudis have focused on keeping oil prices stable and affordable. Saudi Aramco is the only oil company in the world that maintains a large enough excess production capacity to move markets quickly. It has increased oil production to stabilize markets just as often as it has decreased production to raise prices. When Iraq invaded Kuwait and took 4 million barrels a day off the market, Saudi Arabia made up the difference. When Hurricane Katrina shut down American production, Saudi Arabia made up the difference. Even when the U.S. government sanctioned oil exports from Venezuela and Iran, it was largely the Saudis who kept prices from soaring.

Despite efforts to transition away from hydrocarbons, global oil demand continues to rise by roughly 1 percent a year. The United States currently imports more oil every day than it did in 1973. Saudi Arabia remains the world's largest oil exporter and many of our allies are heavily dependent on Saudi oil. Thus, Saudi Arabia's ability to efficiently supply global energy markets remains an important American interest.

Because Osama bin Ladin was Saudi some have concluded that the Saudi government supported the 9/11attacks. It did not. By 2001 bin Ladin had formally declared war on the Saudi monarchy because he deemed it too closely aligned with the United States. In response, the Saudi government had sought his extradition him from both Sudan and Afghanistan, stripped him of his Saudi citizenship and frozen his assets.

As the "custodian" of Mecca and Medina, Saudi King Salman plays an important role in Islam. When Trump visited Riyadh, the king assembled several dozen Muslim heads of state to meet him. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Islamic Development Bank, and the Muslim World League are all headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Every year millions of pilgrims travel to Mecca. Every day a quarter of the world's population turns to Mecca to pray and listen to sermons. What those sermons preach matters.

In recent years the message has become decidedly more open minded. Saudi textbooks have become much more tolerant of other religions. Saudi officials have firmly condemned Holocaust deniers. Religious charities, which were once largely unregulated, have come under strict government control. Dozens of clerics who disagreed with these measures have been fired. Saudi Arabia's willingness to promote a moderate message to the Islamic world remains an important American interest.

It should also be remembered that Saudi Arabia is changing rapidly, particularly with regards to the role of women. The ban on women driving has been lifted as have restrictions on their travel, education, and employment. Women are no longer required to wear a headscarf or long robe. They can now participate in sports and sit where they choose in restaurants. The percentage of women working has nearly doubled in the past decade. All of this is new and in marked contrast to the direction of change in places like Iran and Afghanistan. Rather than focusing on past mistakes, encouraging Saudi evolution towards modern social standards is an important American interest.

With Iran's backing, Houthi rebels overthrew the government of Yemen in 2014. Fearing Tehran's encroachment on their southern border, the Saudis intervened militarily. They did not target Yemeni civilians any more than American drone strikes intentionally killed Afghan children. Nonetheless, concern over civilian casualties led the United States to stop arms shipments to the Saudis who were forced to make peace with the Houthis. Two years later when the United States found it necessary to bomb the Houthis itself, the Saudis unsurprisingly declined to participate. Working with Saudi Arabia to contain Iranian influence in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria remains an important American interest.

It is also worth mentioning that unlike many nations the Saudis pay cash for American weapons. Their purchases help fund our own weapons development and reduce unit costs for the U.S. military. Saudi purchases create thousands of American jobs and have kept otherwise unprofitable assembly lines open. Saudi military bases were built to American specifications and have often provided valuable access in times of crisis. Maintaining strong defense ties with Saudi Arabia is an important American interest.

Saudi Arabia is a prosperous country with a lot to lose and a strong interest in promoting regional stability. Thus, it would like to see the Arab-Israeli conflict resolved. The Saudis have consistently supported American efforts to advance the peace process. On two occasions they have put forward their own peace proposals which, while not fully acceptable to Israel, were what President Ronald Reagan called "the single largest step towards peace on which the Arabs have been able to agree." In 2020 they quietly accepted the Abraham Accords in which Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recognized Israel. Expanding the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia remains an important American interest.

Effective foreign policy requires defending American interests as well as American values. In our increasingly multipolar world, the pursuit of absolute moral purity is a luxury. In the coming decades we will need to focus more sharply on fundamental American interests: security, sovereignty and survival. We will need to seek out partners who share many, if not all, of our security and economic interests, particularly those whose society is evolving towards the values we endorse. Saudi Arabia is such a partner and Trump is smart to strengthen our relationship.

David H. Rundell is a former Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the author of Vision or Mirage, Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads. Ambassador Michael Gfoeller is a former Political Advisor to the U.S. Central Command and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.