A U.S.-Saudi Partnership Cannot Be Built on Denial

Newsweek | By Terry Strada

At the recent invitation of President Donald Trump, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Washington expecting a victory lap. His visit was engineered to signal a renewed closeness between the United States and Saudi Arabia, with discussions about defense guarantees, nuclear cooperation and strategic alignment. But at the height of this carefully managed charm offensive, the crown prince was confronted with the one issue he cannot spin away: the kingdom’s long-documented connections to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The moment he was asked about Saudi Arabia’s role, the polished veneer cracked. After offering a few seconds of hollow sympathy, he shifted into a lecture on Osama bin Laden’s motivations and admonished Americans to “focus on reality.” For the thousands of families who lost loved ones on 9/11—and for the investigators, intelligence officers and bipartisan lawmakers who spent more than two decades uncovering the truth—his comments were not just dismissive. They were offensive.

Then came the most alarming claim: that Saudi Arabia was actually the victim because Al Qaeda supposedly targeted the U.S.-Saudi relationship. That is not reality. It is gaslighting. It ignores a substantial body of evidence showing that Saudi government officials—paid through the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and stationed in American cities—provided support to the hijackers before the attacks.

For years, the kingdom’s strategy was simple: deny, deflect and make the problem go away through political pressure. That ended on August 28, 2025, when federal Judge George Daniels rejected Saudi Arabia’s latest attempt to escape accountability and concluded after 13 months of careful review that the record collectively supports a determination that the Saudi government “knowingly, or at least with deliberate indifference, participated in supporting the [911] hijackers “terrorist activity.”

In that courtroom in lower Manhattan—packed with survivors and loved ones—Saudi Arabia’s arguments collapsed under their own weight and the judge made one thing unmistakably clear: The evidence merits a trial.

While MBS smiled for the cameras in Washington, Saudi lawyers are desperately fighting to avoid the one place where reality cannot be spun—the witness stand.

This is why the kingdom has fought so aggressively to suppress documents, limit transparency and pressure Washington to “move on.” But thanks to bipartisan action in Congress—particularly the passage of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act—and the persistence of the 9/11 community, many of those documents were declassified.

That is the reality the crown prince cannot outrun, no matter how many PR firms he hires or how carefully he manages his Washington visits.

As policymakers consider deeper military, economic and nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia, they should recognize what genuine partnership requires. At minimum, it demands honesty, transparency and a willingness to confront difficult truths—not deny them.

Yet during the crown prince’s visit, he did not acknowledge the kingdom’s responsibility for the actions of its officials who assisted the hijackers. He did not express a meaningful commitment to accountability. And he did not signal a willingness to cooperate fully with the U.S. legal process—a process that exists only because Congress acted when administrations of both parties would not.

Accountability is the only path to an honest and stable relationship. No amount of diplomatic ceremony or investments can erase a documented record of complicity or the blood of thousands of innocents.  Until Saudi Arabia faces what its own officials enabled, there can be no genuine trust between our nations. Our security cannot be bartered away for promises of partnership or commercial deals that ignore the lessons of 9/11.

The families who lost loved ones and injured survivors will continue pressing for transparency, accountability and full reckoning with the evidence. That is the reality to focus on.

Terry Strada is national chair of 9/11 Families United.

Read the Op-Ed from Newsweek HERE.