Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday accused Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince of going “full gangster” and urged the Trump administration’s nominee for ambassador to Riyadh to hold the country accountable for human rights abuses.

The comments by Rubio (R-Fla.) drew agreement from others on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and underscored the ongoing bipartisan frustration among U.S. lawmakers with the oil-rich Arab kingdom.


“He’s gone full gangster,” Rubio said of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who’s commonly called MBS. He further said the Saudi royal was “reckless, ruthless” and “increasingly willing to test the limits of what he can get away with.”

The Saudi list of offenses, Rubio and others noted, include the killing of civilians in the U.S.-supported conflict in Yemen, the murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, the alleged torture of an American citizen and the detention of women’s rights activists.

The ambassadorial nominee, retired Army Gen. John Abizaid, stressed that the U.S. relationship with the Saudis was bigger than the crown prince, and that the best way to change conditions in the Arab kingdom was through engagement.

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“It is in our interest to make sure that the relationship is sound,” Abizaid said, noting that maintaining Saudi cooperation on counter-terrorism and constraining Iran are key to U.S. goals in the Middle East.


Abizaid is likely to be confirmed as ambassador, and he was treated cordially by lawmakers on the Senate panel.

Since taking office, Trump hasn’t had an ambassador in Riyadh. He announced he would nominate Abizaid in November, after the Khashoggi killing drew outrage in Washington. Khashoggi, a critic of MBS, was killed in early October inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, the Saudi government has said.

Both Democrats and Republicans used his nomination hearing as a venue to air concerns about U.S. ties to the Saudis and other issues in the Middle East. President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Iraq, career Foreign Service officer Matthew Tueller, was also vetted in the same hearing.

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the panel — without naming names — asked Abizaid if he would insist on being kept in the loop on all U.S.-Saudi communications. The question was a veiled reference to the close relationship that President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, has with MBS.


“Yes, I will insist upon that,” Abizaid said, while adding that he remained aware of the importance of chain-of-command even in the position of diplomat.

Senators pressed both Abizaid and Tueller on how to end the misery in Yemen, where the U.S. has been backing Saudi-led forces battling Iranian-backed Houthi insurgents.

Tueller at one point suggested the Houthis were entirely responsible for the humanitarian crisis in the country, despite numerous reports that the Saudis have played a huge role in bringing Yemen to the brink of famine. Upon withering questioning, Tueller tried to clarify that the Saudis, in part through bombing of infrastructure, also played a role in the crisis.

But Abizaid said the U.S. must keep supporting the Saudis, not only because of Iran’s role in the conflict but also because the Saudis might make even more mistakes — killing even more civilians — without U.S. guidance.

“We can’t afford to withdraw U.S. expertise to the coalition about how to fight,” he insisted.

Abizaid is a West Point graduate and retired four-star general who oversaw U.S. Central Command, which deals with the Middle East. He played a key role in dealing with the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Abizaid has in recent years been working as a private consultant and serving as a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is of Lebanese heritage and speaks Arabic.

He assured senators that he would be willing to have “forceful discussions“ with Saudi leaders about human rights violations and other questionable behavior, including the Saudis’ promotion of a highly conservative form of Sunni Islam that has inspired many terrorists.

Yet he also pointed out that he has observed the country and the region for years, and that the Saudis have taken many steps aimed at modernization, including legal moves designed to rein in their citizens’ financial and other support for Sunni extremist actors.


Abizaid also pledged that pressing the Saudis to improve the treatment of women will be a high priority. The kingdom, thanks to the crown prince, only recently began allowing women to drive, although it then locked up several women’s rights activists.

Abizaid, as well as Tueller said in response to questions from Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico they did not think that going to war with Iran was in the interest of the United States.

But each made clear that they worried about Iran’s actions throughout the Middle East. Like others in the Trump administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who have pushed a hard line on Iran, Abizaid said he hoped that the Iranian people would eventually break free from their Islamist rulers.

“The good people of Iran deserve a better future,” he said.

