Us-Saudi Relationship

The U.S-Saudi relationship has been called a special relationship because it is one of trust and dependence. This relationship has started since 1931 because of political and economic reasons, and the foundation of this relationship is mainly oil, economics and protection. The Americans and the Saudis have a relationship that is evolving seeing that they both have common goals and objectives to achieve. Their main goals were promoting regional stability, for example, both Saudi Arabia and the U.S want to ensure stability in Afghanistan and they have been trying to do that by sending troops. Another goal is supporting American regional interests which is the supplying of oil to the U.S by the Saudis, and a third goal is ensuring Saudi defense by which the Americans provide security to the Saudis, and this security relationship became more serious after the threat from the soviets, and it led to a mutual defense agreement between Saudi Arabia and the U.S in 1951, which entailed the U.S provides military equipment and training for the Saudi army. So basically the two main things that started their relationship, was based on their relationship, and continued their relationship was oil and protection as (Daniel Pipes) said “Saudi ties have been premised since 1945, when a dying Franklin D. Roosevelt met an aging King Ibn Saud, on an enduring bargain in which Riyadh provides oil and gas to the United States and the world and Washington provides security to Saudi Arabia”. There also were some threats that were successfully managed through the U.S-Saudi cooperation such as the Iranian revolution, the Iraq-Iran war, and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. They both fought the Soviets communism threat as well. This relationship between Saudi Arabia and the U.S is one of trust, reliance, and dependence, and is considered to be a friendship as (James Atkins), the U.S ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the 1960’s said “We have few friends as trustworthy as the Bedouin Arabs of the Saudi...