The relationship between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is long. In 1951, the two countries signed a Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement that facilitated arms sales and allowed the establishment of the U.S. Military Training Mission near Riyadh, which has remained the lynchpin of the security relationship ever since. Arms sales and the trade in oil represents hundreds of billions of dollars over decades, and America is the kingdom’s second-largest importer; last year, exports to the U.S. grew by a third.

The relationship has not always been easy. The U.S. has usually managed to maintain alliances easily enough with autocracies, and, to be clear, Saudi Arabia remains an absolute monarchy: the king rules by decree; the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is prime minister and chairman of the Council of Ministers; and the Consultative Assembly, a largely advisory body, is appointed by the king.

However, Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the bloody civil war in Yemen and the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by agents of the Saudi government stretched matters to a breaking point.

While campaigning for president, Joe Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah.” In 2021, he announced an end to “all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arm sales,” though calls for a full-scale arms embargo were resisted. Later that year, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm........

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