Under a new US glare, Saudi Arabia is rushing to release some political prisoners and make up with regional rivals, attempting to clean up its act as it braces for a policy reset in Washington. US President Joe Biden pledged during his campaign to make the kingdom a “pariah” after it got a free pass under Donald Trump, but observers say he is instead adopting a middle path, reports AFP.
While scrutinising human rights, his new administration is expected to work to preserve a valuable security partnership while it moves to reboot nuclear talks with Riyadh’s arch-enemy Tehran. Saudi Arabia has provisionally freed some political prisoners — including activist Loujain al-Hathloul, famed for her campaign to end the ban on women driving — in what many see as a nod to Biden.
Seeking to fortify its regional position in the new era, Saudi Arabia also led its allies last month to end a bitter three-year dispute with neighbouring Qatar, partly at the urging of the US which wants them to present a united front against Iran. The kingdom is also keen for detente with America’s NATO ally Turkey, following a public boycott of Turkish goods last year as their rivalry intensified in the wake of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s 2018 murder in Istanbul.
A source close to the Saudi leadership said that it was “lowering the temperature by keeping lines open with (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan even though there is no love lost”. “Confronted with the new US plans to reengage with Iran and critically review US-Saudi ties in terms of values, the Saudis have been eager to present themselves as partners in resolving the conflicts in the region,” said Kristin Diwan of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
“The detente with Qatar has been accompanied by a number of other Saudi moves — exploring de-escalation with Turkey and hastening the settlement of political trials and detentions that have generated condemnation abroad.” “All of these mark reversals of political stances that had been pursued vociferously with much public trumpeting of Saudi national interests, signalling a new flexibility,” Diwan added.
Recent official statements from Washington have called Saudi Arabia a “security partner”, instead of what the Trump administration highlighted as an “ally” and an important buyer of US military hardware. The change of tone, observers say, illustrates that Washington is steering away from Trump’s transactional relationship with Saudi Arabia as it reviews arms sales to the kingdom. Biden’s inauguration “helped and contributed a lot” in securing Hathloul’s conditional release last week after three years in jail, her sister Alia al-Hathloul said last week. But a relative of another Saudi jailed for years told AFP the handful of releases were “symbolic” gestures to appease Biden, while hundreds taken in a sweeping three-year crackdown still languish in prison.
Those released face multi-year travel bans, which means they remain vulnerable to what the relative, who asked not to be named, called “state coercion”.
