Saudi authorities have reportedly hired more than a dozen lobbying firms to help boost relations with the United States and improve the Riyadh regime’s image as Biden assumes office.
According to foreign agent registration filings with the US Justice Department, Riyadh has used at least 16 firms “to largely restore its influence machine in the capital [Washington] and in other parts of the country, and help boost US-Saudi trade relations.”
The lobbying effort will be even more crucial during the term of new US President Joe Biden, whose administration decided on Wednesday to freeze arms sales to Riyadh pending a review, said a Foreign Policy report.
Saudi authorities are already in hot water over issues including Riyadh’s devastating war on Yemen, its treatment of women and the murder of exiled dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Foreign agents hired to lobby on behalf of Saudi interests have apparently contributed almost $2 million in political donations to federal candidates, including Trump and new Democratic President Joe Biden, said the report.
“The Saudis' hiring lobbying firms to improve their image in the United States is nothing new. There’re currently putting a lot of money into a number of firms that have ties to conservatives on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in the American political system,” said Springmann.
“But in actual fact, they were lobbying several years ago when the Bush administration was doing its best and the Obama administration was doing its best to block the publication of a redacted series of 28 pages from the 9/11 Commission Report. And once they finally let some of it out, which was heavily redacted still, it showed that the Saudis had in fact been deeply involved in one way or another with the attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. So, farther back they were very good at polishing their image in the United States. Various journalists and so-called journalists including lobbyists for Israel have published articles and books about this going back 20 years or more,” he told Press TV on Monday.
“So it's essentially an issue that the Saudis are very good at. They're one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the world and I think the third largest in the region. But of course the issue is and it will be an issue for some time, I think, that Israel is working very hard to improve its relations with Saudi Arabia and the (Persian) Gulf states in order to split the Arab opposition to support for Israel, and to eliminate anybody who would be in any way able to oppose Israel and question exactly what they're doing,” he said.
“And of course, since the Biden administration strongly supports Israel and it appointed a number of Jews who are presumably Zionists to high-level positions like Secretary of State, Deputy Secretary of State, Deputy Director of the CIA, and Director of National Security, we find that he's not really going to oppose the Saudis as much as people think he might,” the analyst noted. The Israelis have been clandestinely working with the Saudis and want the process to continue.
“The Saudis, of course, provide oil to the United States, they buy American weapons, they put lots of money into the bottom line of many huge American corporations, and provide jobs for tens of thousands of people. Along the way Israel, of course, wants Saudi Arabia on its side. The Saudis are instrumental in this because they established the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council and the state lists of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council were countries who are beholden to Saudi Arabia and they would not have established closer relations with Israel recently, without Saudi approval. So all this is under the table, back-channel communications, and I don't see any major changes coming,” he stated.
“What they're going to do, I think, is to simply change the perception in the United States, if in fact there is one, since Americans probably can't find Saudi Arabia on a map if they had help. You've got the situation that's obtained in the United States and Saudi Arabia since the end of the Second World War. They worked with the United States to create international [Takfiri] terrorism, starting with the recruitment of the Mujahideen terrorists against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan back in the 1980s. So I don't think there's going to be any real changes,” he said.
“In fact, when I was in Jeddah, the issue was, of course, the policy of the American mission to Saudi Arabia is to support the country, guarantee stability in the region, which is questionable in my mind, given what America has done to Iran, and also to ensure that Americans can sell weapons there, Americans really travel there, and the US government wants to keep tight relations with the Saudis which has a huge oil reserve,” he said.
“So I think that whatever they're paying the lobbyists, and there is any number of groups that they're backing, is basically to maintain their image or not lose any amount of their image or lose any luster to their image, maybe, and it's going to be more of the same. There won't be any changes. The Congress will not rise up and stop sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia because it's bombing the living hell out of Yemen and engaging in torture and human rights violations amongst some people. You've got all kinds of clerics that have been imprisoned there. Well that's nothing new. Laith al Hathloul was imprisoned along with other people that dare to question what the Saudis were doing, especially those in the eastern province, which is heavily Shia," he said.
"So I don't think there's going to be any changes. The Saudis will use their money wisely. They will use their lobbying outlets wisely. And I expect no real change,” the commentator concluded.
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