Since the deal helped the Iranian economy, it was arguably bad for helping the Saudis. And the Saudis certainly saw it that way. This is the main reason the deal was so controversial in American national security circles. So Trump likes to claim the Iranians were breaking the deal , which if it were true, would be a good reason for the US to pull out of the deal. And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that assassinating Qassem Soleimani disrupted imminent threats to Americans and saved lives, which would be a pretty good reason if it were true.
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By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. The US-Saudi alliance is deeply unpopular with the American people. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Roosevelt had met Ibn Saud hoping for Saudi support for a Jewish homeland in the Middle East, which the king vehemently opposed, and the U. From the very beginning, a fissure baked into the relationship threatened to crack it open. Tensions over the Arab-Israeli conflict would repeatedly flare up again, especially after the Six-Day War, culminating in the oil embargo, and again in the months after the terrorist attacks of Sept.
Those tensions escalated over the next three years until the Saudis started raising the threat of an unprecedented oil embargo to force a change in U. By the end of the year, backdoor U. Library of Congress. Those fears came true in October , during the war between Israel and Egypt, after the United States rushed arms to Israel to forestall a Soviet threat and prop up its regional ally. Kissinger, who hours before had remained dismissive of the oil threat, quickly became furious himself and vowed not to make U.
A month later, he was still bouncing around ideas for a military solution to the oil embargo and Arab pressure. From left, U. Nixon spoke with Faisal about the global impact of the oil embargo. In the end, the United States and Saudi Arabia patched up the dispute, and the oil embargo ended by the spring of Even before the U.
King Khalid of Saudi Arabia stands with U. Yet just a few years after the embargo, another momentous event shook the Middle East and had three lasting effects on U.
The Iranian revolution, as well as an assault that same year on the Grand Mosque in Mecca, terrified Saudi leadership, who saw how vulnerable their own position was.
Within a year, U. President Jimmy Carter would declare his eponymous doctrine that made U. Coming just a decade before the end of communism, the eruption of a revolutionary regime in Iran would conveniently offer the United States and Saudi Arabia a new and much-needed common enemy, one that would provide a glue to cement the relationship that lasts to this day. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia John C. West in a report for Carter in mid Fearful of being toppled by religious radicals, Saudi leaders embraced a much more conservative line and empowered hard-line religious leaders in their own country, the first steps toward a decadeslong program to export the austere Wahhabi brand of Islam particular to the kingdom.
Soon, wealthy Saudis, including one Osama bin Laden , started funding the Muslim mujahideen who were fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that began the same year as the Iranian revolution. Two decades later, that Saudi lurch toward a harsher official line on religion would end up creating the biggest crisis yet in the special relationship. The attack was carried out largely by Saudi nationals—15 of the 19 hijackers—some of whom had contacts with Saudi officials prior to the attacks.
It created the most serious crisis to that point in a seemingly unbreakable relationship. The Saudis, stung by the popular U.
The attacks led not only to two decades of the U. They hinted at possible, if unverified contacts between some of the hijackers and people connected to the Saudi government, but the inquiry was unable to document any official Saudi foreknowledge of or participation in the attacks.
President George W. The Saudi government welcomed the release of those documents. The Justice Department has fended off repeated attempts to declassify more secret FBI files that assess whether Saudi officials had a hand in the attack—the latest in a series of filings sent to a federal judge this month. Days after the United States invaded Iraq, a tank from the U. If actions by Saudis poisoned the relationship in , the United States returned the favor two years later, when the George W.
Bush administration, despite vehement Saudi objections, decided to invade Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein. Saudis feared that would open the door to greater Iranian influence on their doorstep, as in fact happened. Counterterrorism cooperation between Washington and Riyadh went into high gear and continues to this day, acting as one of the biggest sources of ballast in an otherwise troubled relationship.
The common fight against terrorism was a bond that would help preserve the relationship through all the strains about to come—and there were plenty during the Obama years. Saudi King Abdullah escorts U. President Barack Obama past an honor guard during an arrival ceremony in Riyadh on June 3, Yet within two years, the outbreak of the Arab Spring would shake the foundations of countries all over the region, and the American response to the upheaval, to Saudi eyes, was to jettison longtime U.
Worse, for Saudi leadership, was the apparent U. For them, the U. But the apparent U. But the vitriol Saudi-affiliated media outlets and commentators spewed was indeed something new. So, why would the Saudis, or any other tyranny in the Arab and Muslim world whose very existence is dependent on the benevolent generosity of the US military, pick up a fight with these two newly elected members of the US Congress? So, there you have it, the catchword: the Muslim Brotherhood.
The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US as a scary monster predates the brief fortune of leading member and deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Because of Hamas considered a branch of the organisation , Israel , too, joined these Arab states in their shared fear and loathing of political Islam.
Through a deliberate and sanctioned ignorance, these governments are reducing the entire spectrum of resistance to their tyrannies to the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia and its allies, the UAE and Egypt in particular, have launched a vicious and indeed deadly campaign against the organisation. But this is not why they have come after the two US Congresswomen. By contrast, good Muslims — the ones Saudi Arabia et al like — are those silently watching it massacre Yemenis and cut Khashoggi to pieces while rushing to make ticket reservations for their Hajj pilgrimage.
But why should Saudis and their allies be afraid of Muslim Americans? Well, they fear the Khashoggi effect — too many Muslims exposing and criticising tyranny.
While the Saudis and their allies are scared witless of just two Muslim women, there are strong indications that more will be joining Congress in the coming years. Before that, the th Congress, and before it, the th, were also considered most diverse in US history.
Increasing diversity of political representation in the US is a clear trend and Muslim Americans are very much part of it. Currently, there are some 3. The majority of Muslim Americans 76 percent are first or second-generation immigrants, many of them or their parents hail from lands that suffer under despotic rulers.
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