But for sometime we have seen Saudi Arabia shifting away from dependence on the US since the election of Joe Biden. The Saudis see Donald Trump as a worthy partner than the present president.
It's a lot more complicated than that. The shift has been started and Arab regimes are decreasing their dependence on US regime but it started in Trump administration even though they still weirdly favor Trump over Biden.
These Arab dictators need US and CIA to be able to continue their reign, otherwise they'll be toppled and replaced by democracies. They also need US military to provide them with protection (which is something they purchase annually) so that they can continue their wars against their neighbors. That's not going to change overnight but as you said the shift has started.
The reason for that shift is that they have been getting scammed all these years. US military is neither capable of nor willing to provide them with any kind of protection. This became more apparent during Trump administration and the relationship started falling apart back then.
I say 3 major events were the tipping point over the years.
(1) YemenMore than 9 years ago the Arab coalition (mainly Saudi and Emirati dictators) with the help of US regime decided to expand their territories so they invaded the poorest Arab country, their neighbor Yemen and committed genocide there. They wanted more geopolitical power, control over an important choke point (Bab al-Mandab strait) and access to the Gulf and Aden and the Arabian sea.
But things didn't go according to the plans. At some point the Yemeni resistance got stronger and also joined THE Resistance in West Asia. By 2019 they were attacking the US-Arab coalition forces hard and were dealing a lot of damage, eventually defeating the invaders.
- For example US military bases that were supposed to be protected, proved to be wide open to all these attacks and all US defenses (Patriot, THAAD, etc.) proved to be impotent. [cough]Shahed-136[cough]
- The same thing happened to Saudi bases and infrastructures. Like the Saudi Aramco (5th or 6th largest company in the world) that lost 50% of its production in one night despite being fully protected by large number of US modern air defense systems
This actually led to a lot of fights between al-Saud and Trump back then, distancing Arabia from America.
(2) IranOne of the reasons why US has a military presence in these Arab countries is because they basically created a boogeyman out of Iran and scared the Arab dictators into paying US to be there. They were basically telling them that Iran would swallow you whole if US isn't there to "protect" them. Specially since in the 1980's these Arab dictators were backing the Ba'athi dictator of Iraq, Saddam in his invasion of Iran.
But all of that changed overnight!
- On 3 January 2020, Trump broke the international laws and ordered an act of terror to assassinate an Iranian general (the commander of counter terrorism forces helping eliminate ISIS in Iraq and Syria) on an official diplomatic mission in Iraq.
- On 8 January 2020, Iran retaliated by bombing the shit out of two of the most protected US military bases in Iraq eliminating over 140 US military personnel (I have to mention that US regime has not yet admitted to any casualties to this day).
This proved one thing that US military "protection" has always been an illusion as they were incapable of even protecting their own bases and despite all the chest pounding by Trump (eg. on 4 or 5 January before Iran's retaliation he threatened to hit 52 sites "very hard" in Iran if Iran retaliated at all) he was incapable of doing anything whatsoever.
I'd say that was the last nail in the coffin of Saudi (and other dictators') dependence on US regime during Trump administration. Which is when the distancing speeded up.
(3) IsraelAt the end of the day US regime sees Israel as its military based and military arm in the West Asian region. They will always give all their modern weapons (eg. F-35 combat aircraft) to Israel and will never give them to Arab dictatorships. It's not just in the military field, it is in every field like technologies, clean energies, foreign investment, even industries that they are never allowed to build.
This is why these dictators are seeking all of that elsewhere. For example they are acquiring missiles with the help of Chinese and are building their nuclear energy facilities with the help of the Eastern Bloc.
I have to also mention that the
Operation True Promise played an important role this year as well. When the entire NATO despite wasting a billion dollar an hour ($4 billion total) couldn't even defend against that tiny attack using lowest tier weapons, and weren't even willing or capable of any response, how could they protect the Arab dictators?
Last year China brokered peace between Iran and Saudi Arabia and both nations agreed to revive ties. I don't know how both nations are relating now. But it is possible that they reason why Saudi Arabia is shifting it's relationship to China, Iran and Russia is to put pressure on the US but we just have to wait to see how things plays out. And one of the indicators to show which side the belong is thier commitment to the BRIC alliance and their ability to oppose US policies in the Middle East.
The Saudi usurpers' animosity toward Iran is very old. The only reason for this recent shift is that they failed miserably in all their plans over the past decades. I already mentioned Yemen, bin Salman al-Saud was thinking he could quickly annex Yemen and reroute his oil sales through there and stop using the Strait of Hurmuz (the Iranian strait) then declare war on Iran with the help of the "superpower" US. LOL
By the early days when he was still full of hot air, he was openly threatening Iran with war; there is a famous quote of him saying "he'll take the war to streets of Iran".
Little did he know that spending $233 billion would only bring him to his knees without being able to achieve anything in Yemen. That's what the peace treaty was. Him on his knees accepting defeat trying to find a way to stop the drones and missiles from raining down on him coming from Yemen, the country he invaded.
But of course he is also trying to hit other birds with that stone: seeking a future elsewhere (with China, Iran and Russia), putting pressure on US for better deals, etc.