Michael Ratney likely new US ambassador to Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden is anticipated to nominate Michael Ratney, a career member of the foreign service, to serve as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, the White House announced Friday.

Ratney most recently served as the Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Jerusalem while Biden’s choice for ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, awaited confirmation. He has served in various State Department roles focused on Israel and the Middle East.

If confirmed, Ratney would serve as Biden’s envoy to the Kingdom at a precarious time for US-Saudi relations. The Biden administration has looked to Saudi Arabia and others to step up oil supply amid rising gas prices after the US and some other nations banned Russian oil imports over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Relations with Saudi Arabia have also been complicated given the kingdom’s human rights abuses, particularly the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden vowed last year to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for Khashoggi’s murder after US officials determined Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Crown Prince Mohammed refused to speak with Biden about the US banning Russian oil imports. The White House called the report inaccurate.

Michael Alan Ratney born in 1961 is at present the Chargé d'Affaires of the United States Embassy in Israel. He was most recently the Dean of the School of Language Studies at the Department of State's Foreign Service Institute. Prior to that, Ratney served as the State Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Levant and Israel-Palestinian Affairs and, from 2015 to 2017, as the US Special Envoy for Syria. From 2012 to 2015, Ratney was the US Consul General in Jerusalem. Until 2012, Ratney was Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Media and, before that, Spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. He is the current nominee to be the next United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Since joining the Foreign Service in 1990, Ratney served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Doha, Qatar, as well as tours in Mexico City, Baghdad, Beirut, Casablanca, Bridgetown, and Washington, DC. Ratney is from Massachusetts. He earned a BS from Boston University, and an MA from the George Washington University.

 

Turkish exports to Saudi Arabia coming to grind halt

An unofficial Saudi boycott of Turkish goods reduced Turkey’s exports to the Kingdom to a record low in January 2021, despite diplomatic efforts to mend ties between the two countries. Turkish exports to Saudi Arabia dropped by a remarkable 92% in January, from US$221 million to just US$16 million YoY, according to data released by the Turkish Exporters Union (TIM).

Last year, Riyadh ramped up its efforts targeting the Turkish economy after a Turkish court’s decision to accept two separate indictments against Saudi officials said to be involved in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in October 2018.

Relations between the two regional powerhouses have been at a low since the murder of the Saudi journalist, whose killing is believed by the CIA to have been ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Since October, the Saudi government has been systematically pressuring local businesses not to trade with Turkish companies and to drop their goods from their shelves.

The statistics indicate a steady slowdown in Turkish exports since then. As a result, Turkey’s annual exports to Saudi Arabia decreased by 24% in 2020, to US$2.3 billion from US$3.1 billion.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year tried to remedy the situation by talking to Saudi King Salman, and both agreed to hold consultations on the issue.

However, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s first meeting with his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan in November 2020 ultimately failed to change the situation.

 “We have agreed to have a second meeting to discuss the problems,” one senior Turkish official said, speaking anonymously, at the time. Since then, no second meeting has taken place.

Burak Onder, a Turkish houseware and kitchenware manufacturer and exporter, told Turkish media that exports to Saudi Arabia had come to almost a complete halt because goods that had been sent to the country had been held in customs for months without any official explanation.

One senior Turkish trade ministry official, speaking anonymously, told Middle East Eye that from time to time the Saudis would release exports held in the customs after official interventions, but the general problem was still ongoing.

Turkish officials have been considerably muted over the Khashoggi murder and other issues of friction with Riyadh, such as Ankara's relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, since last year.

"We don't have any issue other than the Khashoggi affair, which we have done as much as we could to resolve," a Turkish official said last November. "It is time to move on."