Foreign relations of Saudi Arabia

The history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia goes back to several centuries. After World War II (1939–1945) and during the Cold War (1945–1992), Saudi Arabia maintained an anti-Communist, anti-secular Arab-nationalist policy, often working with the leading anti-communist power, the United States. Following the 1973 oil crisis, when Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil exporters embargoed the United States and its allies for their support of Israel, oil revenues increased dramatically, and the Kingdom worked to become the leading Islamic state, spending generously to advance Islam and particularly its conservative school (known as Wahhabism). Supporters see this as having purified and unified the Islamic faith; other commentators claim it has eroded regional Islamic cultures. (Examples of the acculturizing effect of Saudi aid can be seen among the Minangkabau and the Acehnese in Indonesia, as well as among the people of the Maldives. The Wahhabi form of Islam is also perceived in the West as a source of Islamist extremism. with U.S. President Ronald Reagan and real-estate tycoon and future President Donald Trump in 1985 Saudi Arabia and its oil policy were significant factors in the proxy wars of the Cold War prior to the downfall of Soviet Communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Saudi Arabia helped to finance not just the Afghan Mujahideen but also non-Muslim anti-communists. It also seriously harmed the Soviet Communist cause by stabilizing oil prices "throughout the 1980s, just when the Russians were desperate to sell energy in order to keep up with huge hikes in American military spending." However, increasingly, in common with the US, fear and mistrust of Iran became a significant factor in Saudi policy. In 2010 leaked diplomatic cableds revealed that King Abdullah had urged the U.S. to attack Iran in order to "cut off the head of the snake". Saudi Arabia has long since used its alliance with the United States as a counterbalance to Iran's influence in the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia and other Arab states of the Persian Gulf have looked to the United States for protection against Iran. Relations with the US and other Western countries became further strained by the fact that Saudi Arabia has been a source of Islamist terrorist activity world-wide. Osama bin Laden and 15 out of the 19 September 11 attacks hijackers were Saudi nationals, though some officials argue that bin Laden planned this deliberately in an attempt to strain U.S.-Saudi relations, and former Central Intelligence Agency director James Woolsey described Saudi Arabian Wahhabism as "the soil in which al-Qaeda and its sister terrorist organizations are flourishing". Some in the U.S. Government also believe that the royal family, through its long and close relations with Wahhabi clerics, had laid the groundwork for the growth of militant groups like al-Qaeda, and that after the attacks had done little to help track the militants or prevent future atrocities. Following the wave of early-2011 protests and revolutions affecting the Arab world, Saudi Arabia offered asylum to deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, and King Abdullah telephoned President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (prior to Mubarak's deposition) to offer his support. Saudi military forces and their allies became involved in conflict in Yemen (on Saudi Arabia's southern borders) from March 2015 onwards. == Religion ==

Islamist exportation According to the FFGI at Goethe University Frankfurt, Wahhabism is spread globally with organizations closely associated with the government of Saudi Arabia such as the Muslim World League (WML) and the World Association of Muslim Youth are actively participating. Between the mid-1970s and 2002, Saudi Arabia expended over $70 billion in "overseas development aid". However, there is evidence that the vast majority was, in fact, spent on propagating and extending the influence of Wahhabism at the expense of other forms of Islam. According to the government-associated paper Ain Al-Yaqeen article in 2002, Saudi government-sponsored projects were active in non-Muslim countries in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Australia and Asia. These encompassed 210 Islamic centers which were completely or partly funded by the Saudi kingdom, 1500 mosques, 202 colleges and almost 2000 schools. The House of Saud has inaugurated 1359 mosques in Europe. Other relations In February 2019, Saudi Arabia's Crown prince Mohammad bin Salman defended Xinjiang internment camps for Muslims, saying "China has the right to carry out anti-terrorism and de-extermination work for its national security." China has allegedly imprisoned up to 2 million Muslims in concentration camps, where they are subject to abuse and torture. ==Diplomatic relations==

List of countries which Saudi Arabia maintains diplomatic relations with: ==Bilateral relations==

Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania ==Public relations and propaganda==

The reputation of Saudi Arabia in the West has always been controversial due to its record of human rights abuses and the Saudi involvement in the Yemen civil war. The United Kingdom and United States have become a major centre for public relations (PR) supporting the Saudi regime. Lina Khatib, head of the Middle East and north Africa programme at Chatham House, said that Saudi Arabia had embarked upon a "wide-ranging PR campaign focused on the UK and the US" since 2016, which involved English-language content targeting a British audience. This PR, linked with the support of Theresa May in arms sales during the war in Yemen. In the UK, media PR depicted Mohammed bin Salman as a reforming prince, and major newspapers ran adverts promoting Bin Salman's 'reform agenda'. and a UK Foreign Office spokesman said, "These are extremely serious allegations. We are aware of the latest reports and are working urgently to establish the facts, including with the government of Saudi Arabia." France also sought an explanation as to how an "accomplished and esteemed" journalist such as Khashoggi vanished. Following the murder of Khashoggi, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel halted the sale of weapons to Saudi. A non-binding resolution was also voted in the European Parliament to "impose an EU-wide arms embargo on Saudi Arabia". Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threatened to cancel a multimillion-dollar defence contract amidst the Khashoggi controversy. Consulum, a London-based PR firm primarily staffed by former Bell Pottinger employees, has worked on communications programmes with the Saudi Arabian government and PR firm Freud Communications, which has worked with the kingdom in propagating the Saudi Vision 2030 relaunch under Bin Salman, distanced itself from the regime following the disappearance of Khashoggi. Pagefield Global Counsel and Kekst CNC (a London division of French PR company Publicis) have said that they previously worked with the regime but no longer work in Saudi Arabia. A number of media companies that have worked with the Saudi state to promote its overseas image. Bin Salman met Vice Media founder Shane Smith in early 2018 on his tour of the US, and Vice has had a team promoting the country with the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), a Saudi regime-affiliated publishing group and 'organ of soft power'. SMRG has signed a deal with The Independent to launch foreign-language websites (including Arabic) across the Middle East, which has led to concern over potential editorial influence by the Saudi publisher. SMRG also donates to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change to facilitate Tony Blair's work on the Saudi modernisation programme. According to a FARA eFile document filed with the US Department of Justice, the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hired an ex-top lobbyist of the Heritage Foundation for a brief legislative push before the inauguration of 2020 President-elect Joe Biden and his administration. The contract with Off Hill Strategies worth $25,000-per-month was effective from 19 October 2020 through 18 January 2021, two days before the inauguration of President Biden. As per the filing, the PR firm was tasked with serving "federal legislative advocacy and related services to support the Embassy's congressional outreach efforts and further advance bilateral ties between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States." During the primary debate of 2019, Biden was quoted as calling Saudi Arabia a "pariah" and promising to end the US arms sales to Riyadh following its alleged use in the Saudi-led coalition's war in Yemen that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians. Off Hill Strategies has been called the Saudi embassy's first hiring in 2020. ==International organization participation==

Saudi Arabia is a member of the ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AL, AMF, BIS, ESCWA, FAO, G-20, G-77, GCC, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, International Maritime Organization, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, NAM, OAPEC, OAS (observer), OIC, OPCW, OPEC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, and WTrO. ==See also==