CIA chief met with Saudi crown prince on secret trip, says report

The meeting comes as the Biden administration looks to repair ties with its Persian Gulf ally, which have become strained over human rights issues, the wars in Yemen and Ukraine, and talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Burns met with the crown prince, also known as MBS, in the coastal city of Jeddah where the two men had “a good conversation, better tone than prior US government engagements”, according to an unnamed US official quoted by the WSJ.
In April, the WSJ reported that the crown prince became angry and shouted at US national security advisor Jake Sullivan during a meeting last year.
The Persian Gulf monarchy has been a longstanding ally of the US for 70 years, but ties have plummeted to historic lows under the Biden administration. As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden vowed to make the kingdom a “pariah” over the killing of Washington Post and Middle East Eye columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
In an interview aired by Arab News on Monday, top Saudi royal and former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said Biden had gone “on to practice what he preached” and that the two countries had reached a “down” point in the relationship.
More recently, the two long-time partners have clashed over the conflict in Ukraine, where Riyadh’s neutral position over Russia's invasion of the country has undercut western aims to isolate Moscow. The kingdom has also rebuffed US calls to increase oil production to help tame rising energy prices, instead sticking by an agreement with Russia to only marginally increase output.
The war in Ukraine has underscored a shift to a more independent Saudi policy, which critics in Washington say has been caused by the administration’s policies in the region.
Last week, Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned during a hearing that “the Biden administration's Middle East policies have reinforced a claim of American disengagement [from the region] and pushed our long-standing partners towards China and Russia”.
Burns, the US spymaster and former diplomat who has held previous positions in the Middle East, has emerged as a key go-between for some of the Biden administration’s most sensitive files. In August, he met with top Taliban leaders in Kabul and he was dispatched to Russia in November to meet Vladimir Putin in the lead-up to the invasion of Ukraine.
During the Obama administration, he helped spearhead secret negotiations with Tehran that lead to the 2015 nuclear agreement, limiting Iran’s nuclear development in exchange for sanctions relief.