Saudi Princess in Iowa: Lobbying Pivots After Khashoggi’s Murder

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(Bloomberg) — Simply earlier than the coronavirus pandemic shut down journey final spring, the princess who’s Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. paid a go to to the Wyoming Supreme Courtroom in Cheyenne to speak about ladies’s rights with the tribunal’s three feminine jurists.

In July, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud spoke concerning the Center Jap nation’s plans for social reform and financial diversification alongside ladies enterprise leaders at a digital Zoom occasion hosted by the Colorado Enterprise Roundtable.

And in October, she joined the month-to-month assembly of the Chamber of Commerce’s Ladies Mentoring and Networking Committee in Sioux Metropolis, Iowa, to debate the position of ladies within the workforce, after being launched by the chief director of the Iowa Poison Management Middle.

Her ambassadorial visits to the American heartland underscore how Saudi Arabia has shifted its focus outdoors of Washington. The princess is main a marketing campaign to rehabilitate her nation’s picture after blows such because the 2018 homicide of Washington Submit columnist Jamal Khashoggi and Riyadh’s involvement within the conflict in Yemen — and the lack of shut ally Donald Trump as president.

“I’d name it repute laundering,” mentioned Ben Freeman, the writer of a Might report on the nation’s lobbying efforts.

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Simply months after Princess Reema arrived in Washington, Saudi Arabia employed Des Moines, Iowa-based Larson Shannahan Slifka Group, in line with Overseas Agent Registration Act paperwork filed with the Justice Division.

LS2 contacted state-level figures, resembling legislators in South Dakota and nonprofit leaders in Pennsylvania, for the dominion, in line with the FARA disclosures. After oil costs plunged under zero for the primary time final yr, the agency provided the embassy’s spokesperson to native radio reveals in Texas and the Midwest for interviews, together with an occasion the place LS2 highlighted Iowa’s ethanol gasoline manufacturing within the context of world power markets.

Teams Courted

The record of native teams LS2 has courted is intensive. Disclosures present that LS2 had cellphone calls with officers on the Maine Lobstering Union, which advocates for lobstermen and the fishing trade, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, amongst dozens of others. The Saudi embassy additionally held digital occasions with the Indiana Council on World Affairs, the place the princess spoke about U.S-Saudi ties, and Michigan State College, which featured the embassy spokesperson, in line with LS2’s filings.

“It’s all simply a part of a much bigger push for them to remind folks out in America about no matter ties they need to Saudi Arabia,” Freeman, director of the Overseas Affect Transparency Initiative on the Middle for Worldwide Coverage, mentioned in an interview. The middle is an unbiased nonprofit that researches points together with conflict, corruption and local weather change with funding from teams such because the Ford Basis and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

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The Maine Lobstering Union and the Indiana Council didn’t reply to requests for remark, whereas the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Michigan State didn’t present a direct remark.

As the dominion slashed its lobbying spending, it shifted its focus outdoors the nation’s capital.

“We respect the truth that People outdoors Washington have an interest to study extra about developments in Saudi Arabia, and lots of, together with the enterprise neighborhood, tutorial establishments and civil society teams, are eager on sustaining longstanding relations with the dominion or cultivating new ones,” Fahad Nazer, a spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington, mentioned in an e-mail.

Occasions tarnishing the dominion’s repute included the homicide of Khashoggi in 2018 contained in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. U.S. intelligence businesses concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed off on the operation. The prince has denied involvement within the killing, and the dominion has rejected what it referred to as a “false” U.S. narrative.

Additionally weighing on the nation’s picture is its conflict with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, which has been deemed the world’s worst humanitarian disaster by the United Nations. And its oil value conflict with Russia drew the ire of different oil-producing states.

The dominion misplaced a powerful supporter in Washington when Trump, who made Saudi Arabia the centerpiece of his Center East coverage, misplaced the presidency. Against this, President Joe Biden launched the intelligence report on Khashoggi’s killing, though his administration stopped in need of imposing sanctions immediately on the crown prince.

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Princess Reema arrived in early 2019, charged with the daunting mission of repairing U.S.-Saudi relations. She maintained a low profile in Washington as lawmakers from each events tried to penalize the dominion with sanctions and navy assist cuts.

With a level from George Washington College and a repute as an advocate for ladies, she launched into a tour across the U.S., touting Saudi Arabia’s advances in human rights and selling stronger financial ties. USA Right this moment reported earlier on her outreach marketing campaign.

The princess — who’s Saudi Arabia’s first-ever feminine ambassador — is a member of the dominion’s ruling household via her grandfather, who was the brother of King Salman. She is the daughter of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, an influential former ambassador to the U.S. who was nicknamed “Bandar Bush” for his closeness to the Bush household. He maintained a legendary diplomatic community and held vital affect all through his 22 years in Washington.

Saudi Arabia’s plan referred to as for LS2 to work with state and native leaders to arrange occasions with Princess Reema and different high-level officers from the dominion, in line with Freeman of the Middle for Worldwide Coverage. Then the legislation agency Hogan Lovells, which has been contracted by Saudi Arabia for about 14 years, would convey information of the occasion to the Washington lawmakers representing the district the place the occasion occurred. Hogan Lovells declined to remark, and LS2 referred remark to the Saudi embassy.

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“It’s critical for the embassy to have interaction with these teams, not solely to spotlight how shut Saudi-U.S. ties have superior the pursuits of each nations and the way the connection has positively impacted the assorted states going again a long time, but additionally to discover alternatives for extra collaboration between our two peoples,” mentioned Nazer, the Saudi embassy spokesman.

Though many lobbyists severed their contracts with the dominion after the Khashoggi killing, the nation nonetheless engages a number of Washington-based corporations, together with legislation workplaces Hogan Lovells and King & Spalding, with which it has long-term ties, and Qorvis, a public affairs agency. Final yr, Hogan Lovells acquired the very best payout among the many kingdom’s lobbyists, incomes $2 million, knowledge collected by the Middle for Responsive Politics reveals.

In 2020, lobbyists for Saudi Arabia reached out to congressional workplaces about 700 instances, which can appear to be loads, however truly represents a decline, Freeman mentioned. “By nearly some other nation’s requirements, that may be huge,” Freeman mentioned. “However in earlier years we’ve seen the Saudis contact Hill workplaces greater than a thousand instances. That is completely the bottom quantity that we’ve ever seen.”

Saudi Arabia slashed its lobbying spending 76% over the previous three years from a excessive of $34 million in 2018.

The dominion’s change in ways coincides with a broader shift in U.S. lobbying by Arab nations. After a Saudi-led boycott within the Persian Gulf, Qatar considerably ramped up its lobbying efforts within the U.S. With Trump out of the Oval Workplace, it noticed a possibility to achieve affect with the Biden administration and shortly employed seven companies in three months to do lobbying and consulting work.

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The United Arab Emirates has pursued an identical technique to that of the dominion in recent times, however the UAE’s lobbying spending far outstrips that of its two neighbors. It spent $16 million in 2020, whereas Qatar spent $11 million and Saudi Arabia $8 million.

Along with a number of native public diplomacy initiatives throughout the U.S., resembling an $800,000 donation to Houston’s Flores Neighborhood Library after Hurricane Harvey, the UAE additionally maintains a heavy concentrate on Washington, the place high-profile companies advise them on points starting from arms gross sales to cybersecurity.

Even with rising competitors from its Gulf neighbors within the Washington affect sport, Princess Reema’s ongoing cross-country tour reveals that Saudi Arabia is working to rebuild its relationship with the U.S. from the ground-up, state-by-state, whereas it waits for the mud to settle within the nation’s capital.

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