Former Centcom chief John Abizaid arrives in Riyadh as new US ambassador
The new US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, retired four-star general John Abizaid, arrived in Riyadh on Thursday, filling a position that has lain vacant since US President Donald Trump took office more than two years ago.
Washington has not had an ambassador in Riyadh since January 2017, a 27-month period in which US-Saudi ties have become increasingly complicated over issues including the murder last year of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.
Trump nominated Abizaid, who led US Central Command (Centcom) during the Iraq war, for the position in November. He was approved by the Senate in April.
During his nomination hearing in early March, senators pressed Abizaid on Khashoggi's killing and other Saudi human rights abuses, including the alleged detention and torture of activists and royal family members.
"We should not accept these outrageous sorts of problems," Abizaid, 68, said of the abuses.
"These short-term problems have to be solved now... it requires forceful discussions... And I am prepared to have those discussions."
Abizaid is a Lebanese-American Arabic speaker who commanded US forces in the Middle East from 2003 to 2007 and has previously advocated reaching out to Iran.
"We should talk to our enemies and tell them clearly what we expect", he said in 2008. "I don't believe Iran is a suicide state."
The general has spent the past decade mostly out of government at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and on a fellowship at Dartmouth University, serving periods as an adviser to the Obama and Trump administrations on Ukraine.
Kushner factor
Without an ambassador in Riyadh, the current US administration has used Trump's son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner as a conduit to Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, who the CIA believe ordered the killing of Khashoggi.
Only last month, the kingdom arrested two US-Saudi citizens in a crackdown on dissidents, a move that followed the detention and reported torture of another US citizen, physician Walid Fitaihi.
Despite the calls for a tougher stance against the Saudis on rights abuses and the killing of civilians by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, Trump has expressed reluctance to push too hard on Riyadh.
The president cites the kingdom's multibillion-dollar purchases of US military equipment and investments in US firms, as well as its role as an important regional counterbalance to Iran.
A US embassy statement on Thursday quoted Abizaid as saying: "Saudi Arabia and the United States work together every day to protect the security of our two countries, promote prosperity and economic development, and build the people-to-people ties that keep our relationship strong."
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
