New Poll Underscores Frailty Of U.S. Relationship With Saudi Arabia | HuffPost Latest News - Action News
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Posted: 2016-12-31T18:18:16Z | Updated: 2016-12-31T18:18:16Z

WASHINGTON Forty-seven percent of Americans think Saudi Arabia, a U.S. partner since the 1940s, is unfriendly or an enemy, according to a new survey conducted by The Huffington Post and YouGov.

Voters who supported President-elect Donald Trump are especially wary. While Hillary Clinton voters are split about Saudi Arabia 36 percent consider it friendly or an ally, and 38 percent say its unfriendly or an enemy 59 percent of Trump voters say the nation is unfriendly at best. Americans younger than 30 are the least likely of the age groups surveyed to see it as friendly.

The numbers emerge after a year when traditional U.S.-Saudi alignment has looked surprisingly shaky.

The kingdoms U.S.-backed campaign to restore the internationally recognized government of Yemen has become increasingly controversial as awareness spreads about the hundreds of civilians killed by Saudi airstrikes and the way terrorist groups have benefited from the war.

Lawmakers, particularly Democrats unhappy with President Barack Obamas facilitation of the Saudi effort, have sought ways to punish Saudi Arabia, including by signaling growing opposition to arms transfers. (While the Obama administration has halted some weapon shipments, it continues to provide the Saudis and their partners with intelligence and with aerial refueling that enables them to take longer bombing runs.) Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a leader of the movement, has said he wants to speak about more than Yemen that he seeks to fully reevaluate the U.S.-Saudi relationship. The majority of senators have yet to publicly adopt that view, but voices that will publicly praise the partnership are rare.

A different congressional fight has already resulted in precisely the outcome Saudi Arabia was dreading.

In September, Democrats and Republicans united to pass a bill that would allow victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia and then jointly overrode a veto by Obama, who was concerned it could open up the U.S. to litigation abroad.

The fight over the legislation, known as the Saudi 9/11 bill, reopened the question of whether Saudi Arabia facilitated the tragedy. Though the Saudis have battled al Qaeda for years and had their reputation cleared by U.S. government investigations (including those 28 pages ), congressional leaders chose to score an easy political win that encouraged conspiracy theorists.

Prospects for valuable U.S.-Saudi engagement including on terrorism, womens rights and Islamist radicalization have since plummeted. Saudi leaders were already frustrated with the U.S. because of Barack Obama s interest in diplomacy with their rival Iran and his perceived under-appreciation of their support for U.S. strategy abroad . After the slight from Capitol Hill, they faced growing public pressure at home to stand up to the Americans. Now they are debating pulling back from the relationship, including by moving billions of dollars of investment away from the U.S. economy.

The poll numbers suggest Saudi leaders might be correct in reevaluating the relationship and wise to think about new ways to shore it up, given the clearly limited influence of their scores of high-paid American lobbyists.