️❣️❣️❣️❣️Saudi Arabia confident Biden will pursue regional stability,
foreign minister says
Reuters
By Marwa Rashad, Raya Jalabi
Nov 21 2020 2023
RIYADH/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s
foreign minister said on Saturday he was confident that Democrat Joe Biden’s
incoming U.S. administration would pursue policies that help regional stability
and that any discussions with it would lead to strong cooperation.
Riyadh is bracing itself for a new U.S.
president who pledged on the election campaign trail to reassess ties with
Saudi Arabia, a state he described as a “pariah” in 2019.
“I’m confident that a Biden administration
would continue to pursue policies that are in the interest of regional
stability,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told Reuters in a virtual
interview on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders Summit, which his country is
hosting.
“Any discussions we will have with the
future administration will lead to strong cooperation.”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman enjoyed close personal
ties with President Donald Trump and their relationship provided a buffer
against international criticism over Riyadh’s rights record following the
murder of Saudi journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi, Riyadh’s role in
Yemen’s war and the detention of women’s rights activists.
Those areas may now become points of friction between Biden and
Saudi Arabia, a major oil exporter and buyer of U.S. arms.
Prince Faisal emphasized the 75-year history of “strong defence
cooperation” between the two countries and said he expected it to continue.
He said it would be “entirely appropriate” for the United States
to designate the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen as a foreign terrorist
organisation.
“We all know much of their weapons and a significant part of
their ideology comes from Iran. So they are certainly a foreign-backed
terrorist organization,” he said.
Washington sees the group as an extension of Iranian influence
in the region. Trump’s administration has been threatening to blacklist the
group, sources have told Reuters, as part of its “maximum pressure” campaign
against Tehran. Iran denies that it gives financial and military support to the
Houthis.
Saudi Arabia lobbied hard for the campaign against rival Iran,
and at issue is how Biden will address Tehran’s ballistic missiles and support
for regional proxies in any talks to revive an international nuclear pact with
Iran that Trump quit in 2018.
Prince Faisal also said the kingdom enjoyed “good, amicable”
relations with Turkey, which has been at odds with the kingdom for some years
over foreign policy and attitudes towards Islamist political groups. The murder
of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul sharply heightened tensions.
For more than a year, some Saudi and Turkish traders have
speculated that Saudi Arabia was enforcing an informal boycott of imports from
Turkey.
The minister said he hasn’t seen any numbers that would support
the existence of a boycott.
Commenting on the rift among Gulf countries with Qatar, Prince
Faisal said Riyadh was seeking a way to end a dispute with Qatar. The dispute
dates from 2017 when the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and
Egypt imposed a boycott on Qatar, severing diplomatic and transport ties and
accusing it of supporting terrorism. Qatar denies allegations of supporting
terrorism.
In the lead-up to the G20, leading human rights groups and families
of jailed activists called on G20 capitals to boycott the summit over Riyadh’s
rights record.
Asked whether Saudi Arabia was considering clemency for detained
women’s rights activists, a prospect initially raised by the Saudi ambassador
to the UK and subsequently walked back, Prince Faisal said clemency was a
“non-issue”, given the women were still on trial.
The detainees are accused of harming Saudi interests. Few
charges have been made public but some relate to contacts with foreign
journalists, diplomats and rights groups.
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