Re: --there're anti-US tendencies within the Saudi state apparatus as well...." Mostly Shiites minority! The Wahabi majority could carless! They are happy with the status quo!
Just see how "happy" Crown Prince Abdullah ibn Abdullaziz is....
Saudis on a New Course as Prince Scolds U.S.
Susan Sachs New York Times Service
Tuesday, December 5, 2000
RIYADH After a life spent in the shadows of a monarchy known for its caution and calculation, Crown Prince Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, has emerged as a voice sharply critical of U.S. policy in the Middle East and an advocate of domestic reform.
At an age when many men would settle for a peaceful retirement, the 77 year-old heir to the throne has gathered up the reins of power during the protracted illness of his half-brother, King Fahd, and pointed his nation toward an unprecedented engagement with the outside world.
This venture into uncharted territory comes at a particularly unsettled time both in the region and at home, where economic troubles have made the ruling family especially vulnerable to popular complaints about its spending habits and its monopoly on decision-making.
Relations with the United States, the cornerstone of foreign policy for decades, are acutely strained by Saudi anger over the Israeli response to the Palestinian uprising of the past two months. Internally, the income gap is widening between the tiny slice of wealthy Saudis and the rest of the fast-growing population of 22 million. Only 5 percent of women work; unemployment for men is estimated at up to 35 percent.
The success of Prince Abdullah's ambitious projects to open up his country may depend, ultimately, on his own longevity and the enthusiasm of the powerful princes behind him.
These princes, too, are of an advanced age. Who among their many sons and nephews might succeed them on the Saudi throne is another unanswered question hovering over the world's biggest producer of oil.
The ruling clique is already the oldest set of leaders that modern Saudi Arabia has known since King Abdulaziz, its founder, took the throne at age 53. King Fahd was 59 when he came to power.
Still, many Saudis said the emphasis was on where the kingdom is going and not on who is navigating.
An aloof nation, Saudi Arabia has long used its oil wealth to purchase mountains of foreign consumer goods and weapons, while trying to limit exposure to foreign ideas about human rights, trade, openness and governance.
At the same time, it sought to preserve a long-standing political alliance with the United States without agitating a society that, outside the flashy modernity of the big cities, remains suspicious of any intrusion by non-Muslims.
In the four years since King Fahd suffered a stroke and relinquished day to-day management to Prince Abdullah, barricades have slowly begun to crumble.
The Saudi leadership, accustomed to rule through censorship and subsidies, may not have chosen to see them fall. But satellite television, the Internet, globalization and a stagnant job market - all the accumulating shocks that threaten the insularity of rigid regimes - have caught up with the leadership.
"We cannot sit by ourselves and say we don't need others," said Prince Turki ibn Mohammed, the undersecretary for political affairs in the Saudi Foreign Ministry and a nephew of the crown prince. "We are part of the international community. We have to live and work with it."
Saudi leaders have talked for years of creating more jobs for young people, weaning private business from government contracts and diversifying the economy. An unexpected plunge in oil prices in 1998 gave the promises new impetus.
But it took a commitment from Prince Abdullah, Saudi officials said, to push the government into cutting the budget and seeking foreign investment in job intensive projects.
Although oil prices have rebounded, they added, the prince's interest in reform has not flagged.
"We are in the process of inventing ourselves," said one aide to an influential Saudi prince. "All the indications are that we are opening. But what are the consequences? We will have to deal with it as it comes."
The opening, however, has coincided with a burst of anti-American feeling that has intensified with the Palestinian Israeli violence. Many Saudis accuse the United States of defending Israel's use of military force. Prince Abdullah, say diplomats who have spoken with him, shares that anger.
If the situation is not defused and peace talks restarted, the prince has said, instability could spread. He has called for the United States to be more evenhanded and has threatened "decisive action" if Israel did not show more restraint.
Friendship with the United States, the Saudis' biggest trading partner and arms supplier, has been a touchstone of their policy. The leadership has given its backing in the last 10 years to the U.S. sponsored peace talks and acted as a go between for Syria and United States.
Now, the new animosity toward the United States has set off a debate about the degree of engagement the Saudis want with the West in general and America in particular.
"If the perception of the United States doesn't change, it will weaken the arguments of those who say we should totally open up and plug in with the world," said one influential prince. "People will say it's too risky."
Prince Abdullah, at recent Arab and Islamic summit meetings, has avoided war-mongering but called directly for the United States to reprimand Israel. He has pledged Saudi money to the Palestinians and warned - with the United States clearly in mind - that Saudi Arabia would break relations with any country that moved its embassy in Israel to the disputed city of Jerusalem.
Power in Saudi Arabia does not flow from one man, as in many of the neighboring countries. Under King Fahd and now under Prince Abdullah, decisions are made in conjunction with senior princes who have held ministerial positions for decades, diplomats and Saudi officials said.
The crown prince, they added, has put his personal stamp on both foreign and domestic policy. Since acquiring political power, he has pushed to open the country to foreign investors and even tourists.
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