Fact Check: Does the video show a Saudi minister announcing the end of reliance on US?

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA: Amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, intensified by the collapse of peace talks between the United States and Iran, a video has gone viral on social media claiming to show a Saudi Arabian minister announcing an end to reliance on the US.

Here is a breakdown of the video and a fact-check of the claim.

Claim: Saudi Arabia ends reliance on the United States

The video shows Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud allegedly announcing the end of reliance on the US. The clip has been widely shared across platforms such as X, Facebook, and Instagram, garnering millions of views.

In the video, Prince Farhan is quoted as saying, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not set its policies based on the interests of others, but rather on its own interests. We pursue our interests. whether in the West or the East, and wherever we find them, we will work to achieve them.”

Fact Check: The original 2022 video does not support the claim

However, a reverse image search of key frames shows that the video is from December 2022 and does not contain any such statement.

The footage is from a press conference posted on YouTube by Al-Saudiya, a Saudi news television channel, on December 9, 2022, titled, “His Highness the Minister of Foreign Affairs: The Saudi economy is in a phase of great expansion and we need many partnerships.”

The transcript of the original video states, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and as far as I know, all the Arab countries, do not put their policies based on the interests of others. They put their policies based on their own interests."

"We will follow our interests, and we will continue to pursue our policies based on those interests, regardless of the points of view.”

“At the same time, we will remain open to dialogue with all our partners, both in the West and in the East, to ensure that there is a complete understanding of what we are doing and that there is an effort to achieve these common benefits."

"These common benefits are not only for us with China, but also with the United States and others. We are pursuing our interests, and we find our interests in the West and in the East, and wherever we find them, we will work to achieve them.”

Hence, it is evident that no such announcement was made about abandoning Saudi Arabia’s partnership with the US on military and defence affairs.