Saudi Arabia-United States: Cracks have developed in the marriage of convenience

For decades United States has kept Saudi Arabia subservient to its ‘Foreign Policy Agenda’. However, it was only a cover up the real objective was to keep the largest oil producer under its thumb.

The story began with the discovery of oil in the Kingdom by a US oil giant leading to an agreement that the first customer of its oil will be United States and in exchange the super power will be responsible for the security of the kingdom, precisely the rulers.

When King Faisal, used oil as weapon, the immediate result was his assassination. To keep the rulers constantly under the fear, US coined a mantra after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, “Iran is a bigger threat for Saudi Arabia as compared to Israel”; the prime objective was to sell arms to the Kingdom.

One may recall that Iraq was pampered to attack Iran and the war continued for a decade. There are indications that Saudi Arabia was the biggest financer of war.

The attack on Iran was aimed at stopping its oil export and keep oil prices high to ensure higher revenue for Saudi Arabia, but most of it was extorted by selling arms. The war was followed by imposition of economic sanction on Iran, which are there for more than four decades.

Having Iran pushed out of oil trade, the next target was Iraq. One may recall that the reason for the economic sanctions on Iran was its alleged involvement in the production of atomic bomb. Using the same strategy United States raised a hoax call “Iraq is producing weapons of mass destruction (WMD)” and attacked Iraq. The war is still going on in Iraq and its oil export has remained negligible.

In the meantime to achieve self sufficiency in oil production, United States kept on implementing its “Shale Oil and Gas plan”. During this time oil prices were kept high to achieve two objectives: 1) sell more arms to the Kingdom and 2) lure Saudis to invest in the development of shale technology in the United States.

While United States, may have achieved both the target, Russia emerged as a “Game Spoiler”. It attained the status of one of the biggest oil producers. Russian-Chinese alliance not only changed the composition of oil markets but also influenced the geopolitical landscape.

To tighten its grip on Saudi Arabia, United States implicated the Crown Prince, to be precise defecto King, in a murder case. Donald Trump went to the extent of saying, “If United States takes its hands off the Kingdom will not survive for more than a few weeks”.   

Around the same time United States decided to take an exit from Afghanistan. There was a loud and clear message that Middle East, particularly, Saudi Arabia are no longer area of interest for United States.

This message became louder with the inculcation of Russia-Ukraine conflict and supply of billions of dollars latest and most lethal arms to Ukraine and imposition of economic sanction on Russia.

All these events indicate that the foreign policy of United States is governed by the owners of oil companies (commonly known as seven sisters) and military complexes.

The world also knows the role played by United States in the creation of turmoil in Libya and Venezuela.

Please allow me to sum up my narrative at “United States is no longer considered a trust worthy friend; it installs and topples governments in countries to support its Foreign Policy Agenda”.