Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MbS) visit to Washington this week marks an inflexion point in the evolution of US-Saudi relations and raises hopes for a radical transformation of the Middle East. Eighty years ago, Prince Mohammed’s grandfather and the founder of the modern Saudi kingdom, Abdulaziz ibn Saud, met Franklin Roosevelt aboard the USS Quincy in February 1945, as the US President returned from the Yalta Conference.

Even as he sketched out the post-war political order in Europe, Roosevelt also laid the foundations of the US-Saudi partnership that became central to America’s Middle East strategy and the global hydrocarbon system. Washington’s assured access to Saudi oil was matched by strong American security guarantees to the House of Saud.

Roosevelt and Abdulaziz dif

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