INSIDER
Pariah with benefits: US aiding Saudi defense despite chill
Read full article: Pariah with benefits: US aiding Saudi defense despite chill(AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden laid out a tougher line on Saudi Arabia than any U.S. president in decades. He said he would make the kingdom โpay the priceโ for human rights abuses and โmake them in fact the pariah that they are.โBut if Biden is making Saudi Arabia a pariah now, it's a pariah with benefits. U.S. leaders also see Saudi Arabia as a regional counterweight to Iran. The administration already had said it was pausing the Trump administration's sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia. AdInternational criticism of Saudi Arabia has mounted since 2015, under King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.