White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan recently phoned Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, while senior Republican senator Lindsey Graham visited him, highlighting a growing bipartisan interest in strengthening the historical ties between the US and the Kingdom.
Recent interactions between senior Saudi leaders and both Democratic and Republican officials drew attention to efforts by President Joe Biden’s administration, senior members of Congress, and various federal agencies to restore strategic interests between the two countries.
The 80-year-old friendship between the nations has been marked by coordination across political, economic, and military realms, as well as cooperation on global and regional issues such as the war in Ukraine, addressing climate change, and ensuring sustainable energy supplies.
Bipartisan communications are bringing things back to normal after brief periods of tension, which are often caused by domestic political tensions in the US rather than strains between the two friendly nations.
Visits by senior US officials to Saudi Arabia, particularly those involved in Middle East and Gulf affairs, such as Special US Envoy for Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, and Special US Envoy to Yemen Timothy Lenderking, aimed to coordinate with the Saudi leadership and cooperate with them in ending the war in Yemen and addressing the crisis in Syria, as well as arranging the situation in other countries such as Lebanon, Libya, and Sudan, and establishing a new security system to ensure that Iran does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.
Senator Graham’s visit to the Kingdom coincided with the US welcoming and supporting Saudi efforts to end the Yemeni crisis.
After the meeting Tuesday, Graham also said he looks forward to “working with the administration and congressional Republicans and Democrats to see if we can take the US-Saudi relationship to the next level.”
He added that he thanked Mohammed for Saudi Arabia’s purchase of 121 Boeing 787s aircrafts— which are made in South Carolina — for the new Saudi airline.”
“Investments like this are game changers,” said Graham.
“I just had a very productive, candid meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince and his senior leadership team,” he tweeted on Tuesday, adding that the “opportunity to enhance the US-Saudi relationship is real.”
According to the White House, Sullivan spoke with the Crown Prince about several global and regional matters, as well as ongoing diplomacy related to ending the war in Yemen.
Sullivan highlighted remarkable progress in Yemen over the past year, during which fighting has nearly ceased under a UN-mediated truce.
He welcomed Saudi Arabia’s extraordinary efforts to pursue a more comprehensive roadmap for ending the war and offered full US support for those efforts, noting that Special Envoy Lenderking will be in the region over the coming days.
