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Policy
Brief #1
The AtlanticCouncilof the
United
States, The
Middle
East
Institute,
The Middle East Policy
Council,
and The Stanley Foundation
US
Challenges
and
Choices
in the
Gulf:
Saudi
Arabia
This
policy
brief
summarizes
the
discussion
at the first in a
jointly sponsored series
of
congressional
staff
briefings
on "US
Challenges
and
Choices
in the
Gulf."
To
receive
information
on
future
briefings,
contact
Elaine Schilling, program assistant,
at
e-mail
eschillins&Manleyfoundation.ors.
The
September
11
th
terrorist attacks
and
their aftermath have
not
altered Saudi Arabia's fundamental
importance
in the
international arena
nor its
importance
to the
United States. Saudi Arabia remains
the
source
of
much
of the
world's
oil
reserves,
the
site
of the
holiest places
in
Islam,
and the
crossroad
of
strategic
lines
of
communication between Europe
and
Asia.Nonetheless,
the
September
11
th
terrorist attacks, unprecedented
in
myriad ways, have severely
strained
US-Saudi relations.
The
facts
that Osama
Bin
Laden
and 15 of the
hijackers were
of
Saudi origin
and
that Saudi Arabia supported
the
Taliban government
in
Afghanistan have produced
a
climate
of
mistrustand
misunderstanding
and
placed
a
chill
on
business activity.
US-Saudi
relations have witnessed past periods
of
friction,
as
during
the
1973 Arab
oil
embargo,
butcommunication
and
cooperation always resumed because
of
core
common
interests
on
both
sidea
The
United
States
and
Saudi Arabia
are
strategic
partneqp
with
a
record
of
close cooperation, especially with
respect
to
ensuring
the
stable
supply
and
price
of oil on the
world
marketf
During
the
Cold War, SaudiArabia played
a key
role
in meeting a
number
of US
foreign
policy
objectives,
including assistance in the
effort
to
expel
the
Soviet Union
from
Afghanistan.
The
September
11
th
atrocities have sparked
a
debate
in the
United States about Saudi Arabia
and the
future
of
US-Saudi relations that revolves around
the
following three questions:
1.
Is
Saudi Arabia
a
Source
or a
Supporter
of
Terrorist
Activity^
It
is
true that
Wahhabisng
practiced
and
promoted
by
Saudi Arabia,
is a
particularly intolerant
form
of
Islam.
It is
equally true that Saudi Arabia
is a
very
"closed"
society. However,
to
hold
the
Saudi
general
education
and
cultural systems responsible
for
generating
the
terrorism that originates
inpredominantly
Muslim countries grossly oversimplifies
the
phenomenon
of
terrorism, which
is the
productof a
multitude
of
root causes.There
is nocredibleevidence to
support
the allegations of
some commentators that
ther
government
of
Saudi Arabia
has
directly
funded terror
organizations^
During
the
1970s
and 1980s,
Saudi
Arabia
did
provide financial assistance
to a
number
of
Arab Islamist groups. However, during
the
1990-
1991
Gulf crisis, Saudi authorities discovered that some
of
these groups
had
turned
out to be a
"bad
investment" in
that they opposed
the
coalition
effort
against Saddam Hussein. Saudi Arabia subsequently
The
Atlantic Council
of the
United States, www.acus.org
• The
Middle East
Institute,
www.TheMiddleEastlnstitute.org
The
Middle East
Policy
Council, www.mepc.org
• The
StanleyFoundation,
www.emergingfromconflict.org/iran
 
Policy
Brief#8
TheAtlantic
Council
of the
United
States, The
Middle
East
Institute,
The Middle EastPolicy
Council,
and The Stanley Foundation
US
Challenges
and
Choices
Saudi
Arabia:
A
View From
the
Inside
Saudi
Arabia
has
come under increasingly strong criticism
in the
United
States
in
recent months.
Thisreport
summarizes
a
briefing
designed
to
provide Saudi perspectives
on
bilateral relations.
It is
based
on
the
discussion
at the tenth in a
jointly sponsored series
of
congressional
staff
briefings
on "US
Challenges
and
Choices
in the
Gulf.
"
To
receive
information
on
future
briefings,
contact
Jennifer
Davies
atjdavies@stanleyfoundation.org.
I.
Overview
Since
September
11,
2001,
US-Saudi relations have deteriorated,
fulfilling
a
primary goal
of
Osama
bin
Laden:
to
drive
a
wedge between
the two
longstanding allies. Immediately
after
the
attacks
on New
York
and
Washington, Saudis reacted
in
disbelief
to the
news
of the
hijackers' identities.
And
while Saudis
struggled
to
accept
the
idea that their fellow countrymen would perpetrate such
an
atrocity, many
in the
United
States reached
the
conclusion that some Saudis, including possibly Saudi leaders,
had
supported,
or
at
least condoned,
the
terrorists.
A
year later,
the
stress
on the
relationship caused
by
this
"context-
changing"
event
has
been amplified
by
tension relating
to fighting
terrorism,
a
possible US-led
war on
Iraq,
the
deepening conflict between Israelis
and
Palestinians,
and the
treatment
of
Saudi nationals
in theUnited
States.
II.
Terrorism
Most
Saudis remain shocked that
15
of the 19
September
11
th
terrorists were Saudis.
The
political elite
tend
to
believe that this
was by
design,
as one of
Al-Qaeda's
primary stated goals
is to
undermine
the
Al-
Saud
regime
and to
damage
its
ties with
the
United States. Accordingly,
the
Saudi political elite
aresupportive
of the US
campaign against terrorism.
The
Saudi Crown Prince, Foreign Minister,
and
Defense
Minister have been publicly supportive, and, among other cooperative
efforts,
have taken steps
tocurb
Islamiccharitiesonterrorism
watch-lists.
While thesestepshave been
criticized
by
many
in the
United
States
as
inadequate,
the
Saudis have
had to
deal with real institutional challenges
in
controlling
illegal financial flows.
Saudi
officials
have acknowledged that they need
to do
more.
The
Saudi public, however, remains skeptical towards
the US
policy
of
"zero
tolerance"
for
terrorism.
While
September
11
th
was a
context-changing event
for US
citizens,
it has not
changed
the key
role
of thePalestinian
issue
in the
thinking
of
many Saudis. Many
of the
actions
of the
Israeli occupation
are
considered
terrorist
in
nature,
and
there
is
resentment that
"zero
tolerance"
does
not
apply
to
Israel.
The
perceived
contradictions
in US
policy
on
terrorism
are
underscored
by a
Saudi sense
of an
Israeli-US,
Judeo-Christian
alliance. Increasing numbers
of
Saudis subscribe
to the
view that
US
policy
has
underwritten
that
of
Israel's
Likud Party
and
that
the war on
terrorism
is
actually
a war on
Islam.
 
Panel Three
Foreign
Policy:
Saudi
Arabia,
the
United
States,
and the
Muslim World
Saudi
Foreign
Policy
Abdul Aziz
al-Fayez
S
audi Arabia
is
located
in a
region that
has
beencharacterized by long periods of political instability andoccasional
periods
of military
conflict.
It has been
fortunate
not to bedragged intowarexcept
after
theinvasionof
Kuwait
by
Iraq. Other
than that,
Saudi Arabia
has
been
careful
and
has
been
insistenton
solving
all
problems
and
disputesthrough
peaceful
means.
To
understand Saudi
foreign
policy, we have to
identify
theprinciples on which it is based. Saudi Arabia is
first
of all an
Arab
and Muslim state. It is a member of the Arab League, and
it
is the birthplace of Islam. This gives the country great impor-tance
in the
Islamic world.
It is
also
a
Gulf
state
and the
biggestmember
of the
Gulf
Cooperation Council
(GCC),
hence
its ma-
jor
role in maintaining peace and security in the
Gulf
region.Saudi Arabia's commitment
to
having good relations
with
all
other countries and to the
peaceful
settlement of disputes isbased on two principles: the respect of sovereignty of each state,and the non-interference in the internal
affairs
of any state.
Like
any other state in any part of the world, Saudi Ara-
bia's
primary foreign policy objectiveis thepreservationof theKingdom's independenceand itsnational security. Saudi Ara-bia is also committed to the preservation of peace and stabilityin the
Gulf
region;to thestrengtheningofArabandIslamic sol-idarity through
the
Arab League
and
through
the
Organization
of
the
Islamic Conference;
and to the
promotion
of
Islamic val-ues and teaching all over the world. Finally, as a member of theinternational community, the Kingdom is committed to preserv-
ing
international peace
and
security.
To
achieve the above-mentioned
objectives, Saudi Arabiarelies
first
of all on the diplomacy and political influence de-rived
from
its unique position in the Arab and Muslim world. It
also
relies on its economic power, derived
from
the
fact
that Saudi
Arabia
is the largest oil exporter in the world and the owner of
the
largest
oil
reserves
in the
world. Saudi Arabia also relies
on
itsmembershipin anumberofregionalandinternational orga-nizations such as the UN, the Arab League, the Islamic
Confer-
ence,and theGCC.As theKingdomiscommittedto thepeace-
ful
settlement of
disputes,
it has been willing to play a
major
role
in the
region
and it has
relied
on its
diplomacy
to try to
solve some of the crises that erupted in the region. For instance,it
was
instrumental
in
bringing peace
to
Lebanon through
the
Ta'if
Agreement
in
1989, which
is the
basis
on
which post-warLebanon currently functions. The Kingdom was also
instrumen-
Saudi Arabia: One
Hundred
Years
Later
19
of 00

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