BEIRUT, Lebanon – Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s arrival at the White House may signal the beginning of a less friendly US relationship with Saudi Arabia, but the kingdom may point to recent progress on a number of issues that have caused friction with the United States.
Long one of the most prodigious executioners in the world, Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that executions decreased by 85 percent in 2020 because of legal reforms. Groups that chronicle incitements against non-Muslims in Saudi books say that the most offensive examples have been removed. And the sentences for two renowned Saudis widely seen as prosecuted for his policy appear to have been calibrated to limit his time in prison while Biden takes command of the kingdom’s most important ally.
Human rights defenders applauded the changes, emphasizing the many places where the kingdom still fails to guarantee basic rights.
“There have been many good reforms to be enthusiastic about, but the total absence of any kind of freedom of expression and continued political repression have mitigated Saudi Arabia by receiving more credit for these changes,” said Adam Coogle, deputy director for the Middle East for Human Rights Watch.
Most of the changes do not appear to be driven by a Saudi effort to obtain favors from the new administration in Washington, but they are products of reforms initiated by the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Since his father ascended the throne in 2015, Prince Mohammed has become the driving force of the kingdom, pushing to diversify the oil economy and reverse strict social restrictions.
But along the way, he developed a reputation for thugs.
Prince Mohammed dispatched Saudi forces to Yemen, where they bombed civilians and ordered waves of arrests of clergy, activists and other members of the royal family. It is also believed that he dispatched the Saudi agents who killed and dismembered dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, although he denies any prior knowledge of the conspiracy.
Prince Mohammed has built a strong relationship with President Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who has often protected him from censorship by other parts of the U.S. government, irritated by his actions.
Mr. Biden promised to take a different approach to the kingdom. During the presidential campaign, he labeled him an “outcast”, promised to defend human rights and called for a broad reassessment of the American-Saudi relationship.
Saudi officials have not publicly offered any measures to address the Biden government’s concerns. Saudi forces continue to fight in Yemen, and the Saudi trial of the team that killed Khashoggi ended months ago, with no senior official accountable.
But recent changes in the kingdom may at least alleviate some long-term sources of American irritation early in Biden’s term.
On Monday, the Saudi Human Rights Commission announced that the kingdom had executed 27 people in 2020, a fraction of the 184 executions that human rights groups recorded in 2019, when the country was second only to China and Iran. The kingdom’s tradition of having hooded swordsmen chopping off people’s heads, often in public squares, has long irritated even its closest Western partners.
On a declaration posted on Twitter, the Saudi commission attributed much of the fall to the moratorium on the death penalty for drug-related crimes, which accounted for much of the total in recent years.
“The commission welcomes this news as a sign that the kingdom and its justice system are focusing more on rehabilitation and prevention than just punishment,” Awwad Alawwad, head of the commission, said in a statement.
Alawwad also said the kingdom had abolished the death penalty for crimes committed by minors, considering both changes part of Prince Mohammed’s reforms.
Mr Coogle of Human Rights Watch, who opposes the death penalty, welcomed the announced moratorium, but said it was not clear whether it had been enshrined in law. New regulations were not published, and the Saudi commission’s statement appeared only in its report in English, not Arabic.
Even though fewer people are being executed, Coogle said, the kingdom’s criminal justice system remains “infamous and unfair and biased”.
Last year, Saudi Arabia made significant progress in addressing an issue that has long undermined relations with the United States: content deemed hateful to non-Muslims in Saudi textbooks.
American officials have complained about Saudi textbooks – which celebrated jihad and martyrdom and portrayed Jews and Christians as enemies of the only true faith – since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, of which 15 of the 19 perpetrators were Saudis.
Although textbooks have often been modified over the years, much of the contested material has remained.
Now, a lot of that is gone. A recent review of Saudi textbooks for the 2020-21 school year found that most of the material considered anti-Semitic had been removed, as well as texts praising jihad and saying that gays and lesbians should be punished with death.
The review, carried out by IMPACT-se, a research organization based in Tel Aviv, noted many changes since its previous report last year. This included the removal of a chapter called “The Zionist Danger” and a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad about Muslims killing all Jews at the end of the world.
Most references to jihad, including one that called it “the climax of Islam,” have also been removed.
The texts still contained a story about “Jewish malefactors” who are described as monkeys and say “hellfire for all eternity” awaits polytheists who do not repent, the review concluded.
But Marcus Sheff, the group’s chief executive, said in an interview that the Saudis are going in the right direction and faster than before. “This curriculum is not exempt from hate, it is not exempt from incitement,” he said, “but Saudi Arabia has clearly made a concerted effort, an institutional effort, to modernize the curriculum.”
The kingdom has been widely criticized for arresting and prosecuting prominent Saudis on charges that human rights groups have denounced as politically motivated.
Although the kingdom did not drop any convictions in the race for the Biden government, the sentences he gave to two prominent Saudis in cases that U.S. officials criticized appeared to be aimed at keeping them out of prison while Biden is in the White House.
Last week, an appeals court upheld the conviction of Walid Fitaihi, a Saudi-American doctor, on charges that included obtaining US citizenship without permission and criticizing other Arab states on Twitter. But the court reduced his sentence from six years to three years and two months.
Fitaihi had already served half of the new sentence, and the rest was suspended, meaning that he will not have to return to prison, although he is prevented from leaving Saudi Arabia for 38 months.
One of Saudi Arabia’s best-known prisoners, Loujain al-Hathloul, a women’s rights activist, was sentenced last month to five years and eight months in prison on charges that included sharing information with foreign diplomats and journalists and trying to change the system Saudi politician.
Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security consultant, criticized the phrase on Twitter as “unfair and worrying”.
But two years of her sentence were suspended and she received credit for her time, which means she could be released next month, after which Saudi officials would no longer need to explain why such a prominent activist is behind bars.
Ms. Al-Hathloul appealed the sentence, as well as the court’s rejection of her allegations that she was tortured by Saudi officials after her arrest in 2017.