Returning from meeting British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in Yalta in February 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took a quick detour to the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal. On board the USS Quincy, Roosevelt met King Abdul Aziz al-Saud “Ibn Saud,” the founder of modern Saudi Arabia. Their negotiations were nearly as consequential as Roosevelt’s discussion with his World War II allies as the Suez Canal meeting set an energy partnership to shape the latter 20th century.
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