IIRC, it was Dulles who said regarding Trujillo, the bloody dictator, "I KNOW he's an evil SOB, but he's OUR SOB".

We supported a lot of bad hombres during the Cold War.

There are several drivers to foreign policy:

1. Moral imperatives, e.g., we oppose evil regimes.

2. National goals and objectives, e.g., winning wars.

3. Domestic PR and image.

In this case, they are not ready to dump MBS over this incident.

Think about the reality: the Brits GAVE most of the Arabian peninsula to the Saud king and he named the f'n country after himself. Like if Barry had named the USA "Obama's Country".

Those guys act like Mafia because they are.

Its the real world and it is very complex.