Wood said in an article in the same magazine: “After more than a week of hesitation, the Biden administration confirmed that the president will travel to Saudi Arabia next month to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s ruler. When I spoke with bin Salman – known globally as MBS – at December, he almost challenged President Joe Biden not to meet him.. He told me that Biden’s job is to search for American interests, and that if Biden thinks that means angering Saudi Arabia, he should try this theory and see what happens.. He said MbS has me in English which he speaks well but not perfectly: ‘Go for her’, I think the term he was looking for was ‘Make my day’.
Yes, Mohammed bin Salman’s comments on Biden (simply telling me, ‘I don’t care’ what Biden thinks) were calibrated to the president. But being a superpower means ignoring insults when the objective facts of the relationship demand them..’
“As Andrew Exum wrote over the weekend, the claim that Biden treats Saudi Arabia as uniquely untouchable and that MBS personally is radioactive is a bit odd…”
“The US deals with bad guys and hateful governments all the time – including Iran, the archenemy of Saudi Arabia, which has literally become radioactive at this very moment. Real US interests are at stake, and leaving them unprotected would be foolish.”
When I asked Mohammed bin Salman if his alleged anti-corruption campaigns were just networks to find and eliminate competitors, he was dumbfounded. Didn’t he actually eliminate them all? He had a point. His rise was ruthless and successful. Now that his power is secure, “He can afford to relax. It’s too late for Jamal Khashoggi. But many other Saudis remain imprisoned or banned from travel. Mohammed bin Salman can free many of them without undue risk to his grip on power.”
