Nancy A. Youssef and Vivian Salama
WSJ, Oct. 12, 2022
“We see no reason why American troops and contractors should continue to provide this service to countries that are actively working against us,” the legislators wrote in a statement, adding that Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. were effectively aiding Russian President Vladimir Putin in his invasion of Ukraine with a move that was designed to support the global price of oil.”
The U.S. isn’t currently planning any significant changes to the number of U.S. forces stationed in Saudi Arabia but some aspects of the two nations’ extensive defense cooperation could be affected following President Biden’s decision to reassess relations after OPEC+ unveiled an oil production cut, U.S. officials said.
The officials said that the U.S. relationship was too critical to American interests in the Middle East to change the overall course and that the U.S. was determined to continue its strategic cooperation with Riyadh that is central to combating Iran. But there could be a decline in some areas of defense cooperation.
Last week, for instance, the U.S. canceled its participation in a working group between the U.S. and the Gulf Cooperation Council on Iran, which was scheduled to take place Oct. 17, U.S. officials said. The meeting was to focus on integrating defense among regional allies, in particular missile defense. … SOURCE