Rumor Check: Has Saudi Arabia Really Severed Ties with the U.S.?

A recent Daily Mail piece notes, "Saudi Arabia severs diplomatic ties with US over response to conflict in Syria."

But while relations appear strained, it looks as though diplomatic ties haven't been severed just yet.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

According to a Reuters article, "Saudi Arabia warns of shift away from U.S. over Syria, Iran," which the Daily Mail bases its headline on. Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief says the longtime U.S. ally will initiate a "major shift" in relations with the U.S. in protest of perceived inaction regarding Syria's civil war and recent U.S. discussions with Iran, according to a source close to Saudi policy.

More from Reuters:

The growing breach between the United States and Saudi Arabia was also on display in Washington, where another senior Saudi prince criticized Obama's Middle East policies, accusing him of "dithering" on Syria and Israeli-Palestinian peace.

In unusually blunt public remarks, Prince Turki al-Faisal called Obama's policies in Syria "lamentable" and ridiculed a U.S.-Russian deal to eliminate Assad's chemical weapons. He suggested it was a ruse to let Obama avoid military action in Syria.

"The current charade of international control over Bashar's chemical arsenal would be funny if it were not so blatantly perfidious," said Prince Turki, a member of the Saudi royal family and former director of Saudi intelligence, Reuters notes. "And designed not only to give Mr. Obama an opportunity to back down [from military strikes], but also to help Assad to butcher his people."

In an unprecedented move last week, Saudi Arabia rejected its first offer of a UN Security Council seat and denounced the UN for failing to resolve world conflicts. The move — appeared largely directed at its longtime ally, the United States — came just hours after the kingdom was elected as one of the Council's 10 nonpermanent members, the Associated Press reports.

According to the official Saudi press agency, the Saudi Foreign Ministry says the Security Council's failures enabled Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime to perpetrate the killings of its people, including with chemical weapons, without facing any deterrents or punishment, the AP adds.

The Ministry also says the Council has not been able to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over the past decades and has failed to transform the Middle East into a zone free of weapons of mass destruction, the AP says.

The Obama administration says its cooperation with Saudi Arabia will continue despite the kingdom's rejection of a coveted seat on the U.N. Security Council, the AP reports, adding that White House spokesman Jay Carney says Saudi Arabia's decision was its own. He says the two countries disagree on some issues but that the working relationship with Saudi Arabia will continue, including on such issues as Syria, Iran and the Middle East peace process.

Here's a clip from the AFP regarding strained U.S.-Saudi relations:

So the final word? While ties are strained, they are not quite severed.

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