RIYADH — Saudi Arabia’s relations with the United States continue to remain “strong, dynamic and multifaceted” under the new American administration headed by President Joe Biden, said Adel Al-Jubeir, the Kingdom’s minister of state for foreign affairs. In an exclusive interview with Arab News, the Saudi minister expected the Biden administration to be no different from its predecessors. He hailed the strong relations between the two countries going back 80 years, stressing that the ties played an important factor in maintaining global stability and security. “I really don’t see much of a change between this administration and the previous administration in terms of their commitment to Saudi Arabia,” Al-Jubeir told Arab News. “Our relationship with the US is a strategic relationship. We have economic interests and financial interests. We work to fight extremism and terrorism,” he added. Highlighting the new US administration’s stated commitment to defend Saudi Arabia in face of the cross-border attacks launched by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, the Saudi minister said: “The (Biden) administration has made it very, very clear that it is committed to the defense of Saudi Arabia, that it is committed to defending Saudi against external threats.” Commenting on the new US administration’s plan about the Iran nuclear deal, the Saudi minister expressed optimism that the new deal would be different. “I believe they have made it clear that they want Iran to go back to the nuclear agreement and they want a nuclear agreement that is, to quote Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken, ‘stronger and longer.’ This is something that we"ve been advocating since the advent of this deal.” “We want the ‘sunset provision’ to be eliminated so that Iran cannot indefinitely enrich uranium. And we want to have a broader and deeper inspections mechanism to make sure that everything in Iran can be inspected, should there be a need.” The Saudi minister accused Iran of supplying weapons to the Houthi militia in Yemen to target civilians and civilian facilities in the Kingdom. He said recent attacks on oil installations in the Kingdom had links to Iran. “All of the missiles and drones that came into Saudi are Iranian manufactured or Iranian supplied,” he said. “Several of them, as we"ve said, came from the north; several came from the sea.” — SG