EGN NEWS DESK
She attended the elite Holton-Arms School for women within the suburbs outdoors Washington. On weekends she strolled with mates on buying journeys by means of the Tysons Corner Center mall in Northern Virginia. Three American secretaries of state — Colin L. Powell, James A. Baker and Madeleine Albright — had been common visitors in her dad and mom’ dwelling.
These days, Princess Reema Bandar al-Saud, 48, the daughter of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, probably the most highly effective diplomats in Washington when he was Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States for greater than 20 years, occupies her father’s previous job.
It has not been simple.
She landed in Washington as the primary lady within the publish in July 2019, lower than a yr after Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was murdered and dismembered by Saudi brokers. She confronted the formidable process of making an attempt to rehabilitate Saudi’s de facto chief, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was assessed by U.S. intelligence businesses to have permitted the grisly killing of Mr. Khashoggi. By early 2021 she was navigating the swap from the nice and cozy embrace of the Trump White House to the hostility of President Biden, who as a candidate in 2019 known as the dominion a “pariah.”
In the 5 tumultuous years since her arrival, Saudi Arabia’s fortunes in Washington, and Princess Reema’s, have turned. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the necessity for Saudi help within the oil markets led Mr. Biden to a diplomatic fist-bump with the crown prince in Jeddah in the summertime of 2022. Princess Reema, with the help of her kingdom’s multimillion-dollar lobbying and publicity machine, has been a high-profile a part of the grudging détente.
“In the connection that the dominion and the U.S. have had, there have been a number of highs and a number of lows,” she mentioned throughout a latest interview within the American English of an individual who grew up within the United States from a younger age. “And a part of my duty was to remind everyone in America what the highs seemed like, and actually work collaboratively to get ourselves again there.”
The return to friendlier relations has not been seamless. The White House was outraged by the dominion’s resolution to slash oil manufacturing simply months after Mr. Biden’s go to. The killing of Mr. Khashoggi — Princess Reema has backed up the crown prince’s avowals of innocence — has left deep scars within the psyche of journalists and politicians. Despite authorized good points for girls in Saudi Arabia, the authoritarian authorities has worsened its crackdown on dissent.
But Princess Reema is within the room at a essential time. She was in Jeddah in mid-March for conferences with the crown prince and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on persevering with plans, stalled for now due to the struggle in Gaza, to normalize relations between the Saudis and Israel. Per week later she met in Riyadh with the crown prince and Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican and a serious proponent of the potential Saudi-Israel pact, to debate U.S. protection measures for the Saudis as a part of any such deal.
Ultimately the crown prince will make the selections, and it’s unclear how a lot affect Princess Reema has within the talks. Her biggest worth to Riyadh could also be as a Saudi lady selling a brand new imaginative and prescient of the dominion to the United States, and as a pleasant face with longtime household ties in Washington soothing egos and tensions on Capitol Hill.
“I can settle for that we aren’t at all times going to agree,” she mentioned in her embassy workplace, situated throughout the road from the Watergate constructing on a road that municipal authorities have renamed Jamal Khashoggi Way.
Her method was approachable however regal, befitting the direct descendant that she is of King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, the founding father of Saudi Arabia. During the interview, she pointed to a black-and-white {photograph} on her wall of the 1945 assembly between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the king aboard the American cruiser U.S.S. Quincy within the Suez Canal, an encounter that set the tone for eight many years of U.S.-Saudi relations. The king expressed the sturdy opposition of the Arabs on the time to the creation of a Jewish state in a partitioned Palestine.
‘You Are Not Your Father’
Shortly after Princess Reema arrived as ambassador to Washington, she known as on Mr. Powell, her father’s previous buddy, for recommendation.
“Please bear in mind you aren’t your father,” Princess Reema recalled that Mr. Powell, who died in 2021, advised her. “If you attempt to be your father, you’re going to fail.”
“I didn’t know I wanted to listen to these phrases,” she added, “however I did.”
Prince Bandar was distinctive in Washington. His shut ties to Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter and notably to each Presidents Bush gave him extraordinary entry to the federal government’s highest echelons and earned him the nickname “Bandar Bush.” Charismatic, ingenious and relentless, he gave luxurious dinners at his sprawling residence overlooking the Potomac River and courted mates of Saudi Arabia at a seaside home in Jeddah and at houses in Aspen, London and the south of France.
During his years as ambassador — 1983 to 2005 — Prince Bandar labored to maintain the uneasy alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United States steady by means of financial tensions over the dominion’s use of oil costs to flex its energy, two wars in Iraq and the terrorist assaults of Sept. 11, 2001.
His daughter is working in a far totally different setting.
“There are far fewer instances when our pursuits intersect with Saudi Arabia than the international coverage consensus would have you ever consider,” mentioned Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who has met with Princess Reema. “I believe the Saudis have pulled one over on the international coverage consensus in Washington for the final 20 years.”
To attempt to counter that sentiment, Princess Reema has assiduously labored the Hill. Clad in a free hijab together with her lengthy hair flowing out, she has canvassed the committees essential to the Saudis, international relations and armed companies, and constructed up relations with each Democrats and Republicans. She has had visiting Saudi authorities ministers meet with U.S. officers over Middle Eastern appetizers at her dwelling in McLean, Va., the identical place the place she grew up. She has traveled the United States, spreading the phrase on Saudi modernization.
Middle East specialists be aware that the work turned much more laborious after President Donald J. Trump left the White House.
“Reema clearly confronted a special subject set from Trump to Biden, however she saved the identical strategy of in search of shared pursuits,” mentioned Brian H. Hook, a former senior State Department official who labored intently together with her underneath Mr. Trump. “The Biden administration ultimately discovered them, which solely elevated her position.”
After Mr. Graham threatened a “bipartisan tsunami” in 2018 in opposition to the crown prince if he was deemed to have been accountable for Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, Princess Reema set about profitable him over when she obtained to Washington. Mr. Graham mentioned that at her behest — and sweetened by a $37 billion order from the dominion for Boeing plane, to be assembled by staff in South Carolina — he met with the crown prince in his royal courtroom in Riyadh final April.
“I mentioned, ‘Thank you for getting the jets. I’d wish to have a brand new relationship,’” the senator recalled telling the crown prince at that assembly.
During a dinner on the restaurant Cafe Milano that included Gen. David H. Petraeus, a former C.I.A. director, Princess Reema was seated close to Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who has been extremely essential of Saudi Arabia. In dialog that night, Mr. Khanna blamed the Saudis for the mounting humanitarian disaster within the Saudi-led struggle in Yemen. He mentioned he anticipated an icy retort from Princess Reema however obtained an invite as an alternative.
“I simply mentioned, ‘Maybe dinner will not be the place to have a dialog, however can I come to your workplace?’” Princess Reema recalled. “He was very, very welcoming, very, very open.”
During their assembly on Capitol Hill, Mr. Khanna mentioned, he advised the ambassador that the bombing in Yemen needed to cease and the blockade of the nation lifted for Saudi Arabia to keep away from additional eroding help amongst U.S. lawmakers. Princess Reema mentioned she conveyed his message to her leaders and warranted the congressman that the dominion, too, needed to work towards peace in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia had spent years mired in Yemen however ultimately scaled again its navy involvement, partly due to American stress, and Saudi officers entered peace talks with the Houthis.
Mr. Khanna now describes Princess Reema as “probably the most considerate and dynamic leaders on Middle East points.”
Polishing the Saudi Image
Born in Riyadh because the second of eight kids to Prince Bandar and his spouse, Princess Haifa al-Faisal, Princess Reema lived in McLean from age 7.
She graduated from George Washington University in 1999 with a level in museum research, labored U.S. commerce gala’s as a retail purchaser of garments and sweetness merchandise for a family-run health boutique within the kingdom, had two kids, then returned to Saudi Arabia at age 30, the identical yr her father stepped down as ambassador. There she labored as a retail government, a breast most cancers activist and a ladies’s sports activities official for the Saudi authorities at a time when gyms, stadium house and public restrooms for girls in athletic complexes had been uncommon.
By the time she was named ambassador in February 2019, she was divorced. Under the dominion’s stringent guardianship legal guidelines, she wanted her father’s permission to journey to the United States.
Once in Washington she relied on former members of her father’s inside circle, like Mr. Powell, in addition to a brand new and increasing circle of her personal. She established a kinship with Yousef Al Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States, and his spouse, in addition to together with her counterparts from Jordan and Kuwait.
She additionally employed LS2 Group, a communications and lobbying agency primarily based in Des Moines, for about $1 million per yr, in line with federal filings analyzed by Open Secrets, the nonpartisan analysis group that tracks cash in politics. It was a small however notable slice of the $56 million that the dominion spent on lobbying, publicity and American operations final yr.
LS2’s process was a extra Main Street-oriented lobbying push for Saudi Arabia across the nation. Starting in 2020 in emails and texts to native companies, civic teams and journalists, LS2 pushed a story about Saudi Arabia’s benevolent position as a U.S. commerce companion and job creator, whereas embracing the notions of gender fairness and diversification at dwelling.
Princess Reema was its entrance lady. She visited Cheyenne, Wyo., showing within the first state to grant ladies the proper to vote in honor of International Women’s Day. In Salt Lake City, she met with Mormon leaders, emphasizing her nation’s shared values of religion and household.
She toured a Boeing plane meeting line in North Charleston, S.C., the place she thanked staff for being a part of the corporate that helped hold her father protected throughout his years piloting the F-15 — and trumpeted Saudi Arabia’s $37 billion order. Boeing, in flip, introduced her with a mannequin Saudi airliner that she retains prominently displayed in her workplace.
“This job is not only about assembly the essential senator; it’s about these folks,” Princess Reema mentioned.
Today, because the Israel-Hamas struggle enters its seventh month, Princess Reema has assured key lawmakers and Biden administration officers that diplomatic relations with Israel are nonetheless inside attain. But Saudi Arabia won’t signal on to such a pact with out concrete commitments, she mentioned, on the Palestinian subject.
“The kingdom could be very, very agency,” she mentioned. “We are comfortable to not simply acknowledge Israel, however do the work that’s obligatory. But there must be a two-state resolution, and it can’t be one which’s open-ended,” she mentioned. “Right now, it must be a finite, definitive path, with very particular dates.”
