WASHINGTON ― President Joe Biden will need congressional approval for any concessions Saudi Arabia is seeking in exchange for normalizing ties with Israel, and he may have a hard time winning support from many Senate Democrats.
A group of 20 Senate Democrats sent a letter to Biden on Wednesday voicing concerns about the security guarantees Saudi Arabia is reportedly demanding from the U.S. Senate Middle East panel Chairman Chris Murphy, D-Conn., spearheaded the letter alongside Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s No. 2. Democrat.
“A high degree of proof would be required to show that a binding defense treaty with Saudi Arabia – an authoritarian regime which regularly undermines U.S. interests in the region, has a deeply concerning human rights record, and has pursued an aggressive and reckless foreign policy agenda – aligns with U.S. interests, especially if such a commitment requires the U.S. to deploy substantial new permanent resources to the region,” they said in the letter.
The White House in August briefed a small number of Senate Democrats, including Murphy, on negotiations with Saudi Arabia and Israel on normalization.
“Historically, security guarantees through defense treaties have only been provided to the closest of U.S. allies: democracies that share our interests and our values,” while Washington has previously refrained from pursuing “treaty-backed security guarantees in the volatile Middle East, a region rife with conflict,” they said.
On Saudi arms sales, the senators wrote “The provision of more advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia should be done with careful deliberation to ensure that such equipment only be used for truly defensive purposes and does not contribute to a regional arms race.”
The State Department in September approved a $500 million arms sale in repairs and spare parts for U.S. tanks and armored vehicles owned by the Saudis. This includes equipment that Saudi border guards used to kill hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross into the kingdom from Yemen, as documented in an August Human Rights Watch report.
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the new Foreign Relations Committee chairman, did not sign onto the letter but told reporters last week that he expects “guardrails” in any U.S.-Saudi security pact. He also highlighted the need for Riyadh to address human rights issues such as its jailing of political dissidents and Saudi Arabia’s 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the orders of Prince Mohammed.
A Government Accountability Office report, released Wednesday, found that Saudi Arabia is one of the most frequent offenders when it comes to targeting dissidents on U.S. soil. The report notes that the Arms Export Control Act “prohibits arms transfers to countries that the President determines are engaged in a consistent pattern of acts of intimidation or harassment against individuals in the U.S.” but notes that no U.S. government agency has “performed any work related to implementing the statute.”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reportedly asked the Biden administration for a mutual defense treaty as well as a civil nuclear agreement that would allow Riyadh to enrich uranium on its soil. This has raised proliferation concerns in the Middle East, and Prince Mohammed has repeatedly said Saudi Arabia would pursue a nuclear weapon if Iran obtained one.
The 20 Democrats wrote that any civil nuclear deal with Riyadh should meet the “high bar of the ‘gold standard” agreement that the U.S. inked with the United Arab Emirates in 2009, which required the Emiratis to forego enrichment on their soil.
Lastly, the senators wrote that any agreement should “include meaningful, clearly defined and enforceable provisions” with Israel to preserve the option of a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
“This should include, among other measures, a commitment by Israel not to annex any or all of the West Bank; to halt settlement construction and expansion; to dismantle illegal outposts (including those that have been retroactively “legalized”); and to allow the natural growth of Palestinian towns, cities and population centers and the ability to travel without interference between and among contiguous Palestinian areas,” they wrote.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu’s governing coalition has crated a new settler agency within the Defense Ministry and has approved thousands of new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank.
Van Hollen voiced concerns at a Senate Appropriations Committee markup in July about Israel’s use of U.S. security assistance in the West Bank under the Foreign Assistance Act.
“We remain concerned about reports that some U.S weapons are being used in a manner not consistent with the rules but we’re continuing to explore that issue,” Van Hollen told Defense News on Wednesday after Democrats sent the letter to Biden.
Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.
