He lobbied for Saudis after 9/11. Now he's repping them on Yemen

Michael Petruzzello, a lobbyist known for helping to rehabilitate Saudi Arabia’s image in the wake of 9/11, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and famine in Yemen, is now registered as a foreign agent of the Saudi-backed government in Yemen.

According to new filings disclosed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), Petruzzello and a team of five other lobbyists will provide “strategic communications counsel” and “media and stakeholder relations” services to the Republic of Yemen.

In exchange for lobbying services, Petruzzello’s firm Geopolitical Solutions LLC will receive $110,000 per month from the government of one of the world’s poorest countries, ranked dead last in GDP per capita.

Specifically, Petruzzello is representing Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), a Saudi-aligned executive committee formed in Riyadh. In 2022, Yemeni President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi delegated power away to the PLC, a group partially based in Riyadh. Unsurprisingly, this move was welcomed by Saudi Arabia, and the PLC remains the kingdom’s primary surrogate in Yemen today.

Before becoming a lobbyist for the Saudi-backed government of Yemen last week, Petruzzello was a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia itself since at least 2002. When the Saudi government faced scrutiny in the aftermath of 9/11 over connections between Saudi intelligence and the hijackers, Petruzzello was hired to handle U.S. press relations and to “promote the Kingdom, its commitment to the war against terrorism, [and] peace in the Middle East.”

Petruzzello’s work rehabilitating the U.S.-Saudi relationship in the post-9/11 era cemented him as the top Saudi agent in Washington, and although three of the partners at his public relations firm quit in protest of representing Saudi Arabia, Petruzzello kept the kingdom as a client.

Petruzzello continued representing the Saudi Arabian government following the murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. MSL, the parent company of Petruzzello’s public relations firm Qorvis, received over $18 million from Saudi Arabia in the year after the murder.

When Saudi Arabia began launching airstrikes on Yemen in 2015 as part of its military intervention, Petruzzello was leading their “ go-to PR firm .” Saudi Arabia’s air and sea blockade of Yemen, which has been in place since the intervention began in 2015, has been described by Human Rights Watch as “using starvation as a method of warfare.” Petruzzello remained the kingdom’s top lobbyist throughout the blockade, the resulting famine, and the civil war in Yemen that continues today. As of this month, he also represents Saudi Arabia’s greatest ally in Yemen.

In total, Petruzzello’s firms have been paid over $140,000,000 in lobbying fees by the Saudi government since 9/11. According to Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), the advocacy organization founded by Khashoggi, this makes him Saudi Arabia’s highest paid U.S. spokesperson.

Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director, says that whether Petruzello is lobbying on behalf of the Saudi-backed government in Yemen or Saudi Arabia itself, he is working towards the same goal: Goading the U.S. into deeper involvement in Yemen’s civil war.

“Michael Petruzzello spent two decades selling the Saudi war on Yemen to Washington. His firm built the website that put a positive spin on the bombing campaign while the bombs were falling on Yemeni civilians. He ran the messaging that helped Riyadh cover up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the man who founded our organization,” Jarrar told Responsible Statecraft in a statement.

DAWN has previously called on Petruzzello to drop his firm’s contracts with Saudi Arabia.

Petruzzello’s new lobbying contract with the Saudi-aligned PLC became effective on September 14. It comes at a crucial time for both Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Yemen’s Houthi rebels made significant advances against the Saudi-backed government earlier this month. The PLC, through its patron Saudi Arabia, may look to lean on the U.S. to provide arms and aid at this pivotal moment in the civil war.

Petruzzello will be a critical intermediary in this dynamic. At the ongoing UN General Assembly in New York, Petruzzello’s lobbying firm hosted “an on-the-record roundtable discussion with senior representatives of the Government of Yemen,” FARA filings reveal. The invite-only event was attended by the Saudi-backed government’s Foreign Minister as well as the Vice President of the Presidential Leadership Council. Topics of discussion include “latest developments in Yemen, Red Sea and maritime security, regional stability, and the broader implications for international commerce and security.”

Geopolitical Solutions LLC, the lobbying firm Petruzzello is working for under the new agreement with the Republic of Yemen, did not respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia’s latest lobbying push may already be paying off. Last week, the Trump administration approved a $24.3 million sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia. While this sale is made to Saudi Arabia itself and not to the Saudi-backed government in Yemen, U.S.-manufactured weapons sold to Saudi Arabia historically have made their way to the Kingdom’s allies in Yemen through unofficial channels.

Historically, Saudi Arabia has used such equipment to “buy the loyalties” of local militias in the civil war against the Houthis, and U.S.-made armored vehicles have even ended up in the hands of Al Qaeda militias in Yemen.

Jarrar reiterates that although the attention of Petruzzello and other lobbyists has shifted from Saudi Arabia to Yemen, they are still pushing the same forever war.

“Now the Saudi-backed government in Yemen, a government that survives on Riyadh's subsidies, is paying him $110,000 a month to make the case for a new round of the same war. Nothing about this is new. The client name on the FARA form changed. The paymaster did not. The product did not. Petruzzello is being paid to justify another round of the failed Saudi war on Yemen.”