![]() ![]() Within the last month, both US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have come calling. It’s a timely and troubling message at a moment when the Biden administration seems increasingly persuaded that the US-Saudi relationship is too big and important to fail. The golf deal is a reminder that “money money money” is a formidable diplomatic political tool. ![]() Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund just reshaped pro golf. Signage is seen as Charl Schwartzel of Stinger GC lines up a putt on the fourth green during the team championship stroke-play round of the LIV Golf Invitational - Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on Octoin Doral, Florida. In short, the Saudis have gone their own way, reaching out to some of Washington’s erstwhile adversaries in the region and outside it and seemingly rejecting the US notion that you’re either for us or against us. In the space of six months, MBS has strengthened Saudi relations with China, maintained his OPEC+ cooperation with Russia, reached out to Ukraine (hosting President Zelensky at an Arab League summit), agreed to a China-brokered détente with Iran, repaired relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and welcomed both representatives of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority’s Mahmoud Abbas to Saudi Arabia. The PGA-LIV deal can’t be viewed in isolation. It’s occurring against an unprecedented stretch of Saudi diplomatic activity designed to decrease its dependence on any single power. Biden held his nose last summer, visiting the kingdom and surviving an awkward fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (known as MBS). On the golf deal, Blumenthal tweeted Tuesday: “This merger seems to betray victims of human rights abuses, 9/11 families, & others.”īut for all practical purposes, the Saudis have won. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut speak out. ![]() The 9/11 families still raise their voices and The Washington Post, which employed Khashoggi, remains a critic. Pressure on Saudi Arabia remains only in a few stalwart corners. Within a year or so of Khashoggi’s 2018 murder, presidents, prime ministers and business leaders were already flocking to Saudi Arabia for the country’s so-called Davos-in-the-desert investment summit. And in December 2019, Saudi Arabia became president of the G-20, hosting a virtual summit because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, these days, the sad truth is that Saudi Arabia has no need for sportswashing. The agreement to merge LIV Golf with the PGA Tour promises to take the Saudis to a whole new level, elevating them from a disrupter on the fringes of global sport to a presence inside the storied mainstream of American golf. Who wins in the PGA-LIV tie-up? Hint: It’s not the golfers Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports Reinhold Matay/USA Today Sports/Reuters Orlando, Florida, US The LIV logo on display at the entrance before the first round of a LIV Golf event at Orange County National. With a sovereign wealth fund reportedly in excess of $500 billion, they have purchased an English Premier League soccer club, drawn some of the sport’s greatest stars (notably Cristiano Ronaldo) to teams they now control, sponsored Formula One racing and invested in women’s golf. What separates the Saudis is the sheer scale of the enterprise. The Nazis did it with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and the Russians at Sochi in 2014. Sportswashing is certainly nothing new. The Saudis are among the world’s leaders in the death penalty, carrying out 81 executions in a single day last year. One can be easily forgiven for assuming that recent Saudi forays into the word of sport were part of an effort to distract attention from a serial record of suppression and violation of human rights, typified by the horrific murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, whose remains have never been found. The message to Washington is unmistakably clear: we’ve got influence even in your own backyard, and you’re not the only game in town. ![]() Indeed, it’s part of a broader 360-degree projection of hard and soft power designed to make Saudi Arabia a key player in the region and a pivotal one abroad with ties to all comers large and small. There is much we don’t know about how this partnership will play out, but one thing is clear: this Saudi round with the PGA Tour may be sportswashing on a grand scale, but it’s also far more than that. And whatever President Joe Biden’s personal feelings about the country he once described as a pariah nation, these days he’s keeping his thoughts to himself. The White House had no comment on Tuesday’s bombshell announcement that the PGA Tour had ended its bitter dispute and will partner with the Saudi backed LIV Golf giving the Kingdom unprecedented influence over the future of the game and the way it’s organized in the United States. ![]()
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