Anger over US support for Israel reaches boiling point
By a Staff Writer
JEDDAH, 11 September — Frustration is growing in Saudi Arabia with Washington’s blind support for Israel, and the Saudi press yesterday blasted the administration of President George Bush for failing to take action to stop the Israeli attacks against the Palestinians.
The displeasure over US policy has prompted the Kingdom to call off a planned trip by its Chief of Staff Gen. Saleh Al-Mahaya to Washington for military talks.
It was the second time this year that a senior Saudi official snubbed the United States over Washington’s support for Israel in the nearly one-year-old Palestinian uprising to end over three decades of Israeli occupation.
Crown Prince Abdullah, the deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, in May turned down an invitation to visit the US in protest at Washington’s pro-Israel policies.
Last week Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said during a regional tour that Arab patience was wearing thin and urged Washington to shoulder its responsibilities to curb Israeli “aggression” against the Palestinians.
“Enough is enough,” Prince Saud told reporters in Amman after delivering a message from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd to Jordan’s King Abdallah II on ways to restore calm in the region and consolidate Arab unity against Israel.
The Saudi press is unanimous in its condemnation of the American position.
“Washington does not appear to be sufficiently concerned by the deteriorating situation, which suggests that it is giving its blessing to Israel’s increasingly aggressive behavior,” Al-Jazirah newspaper said in an editorial.
The paper said Washington’s silence was no longer acceptable, “unless the US approves of the collective killings of Palestinians.”
Al-Riyadh daily warned the United States and the West of the negative consequences of their support for “Zionists”.
“America and the West provide material, political and military support to the Zionists, because they believe there is no threat to their interests in the Arab world,” the paper said in a front-page editorial. But it warned that “latent Arab forces observing the situation” might react in an unpredictable way if inaction persisted at the official level.
Al-Madinah blamed Arab countries for not exerting enough pressure on the US administration to take an active role in the Middle East peace process.
“The ambiguity of the Arabs’ position does not scare anyone ... accordingly, we should not expect Arab appeals to yield an American move,” said the paper.
The Kingdom has put off annual talks of the joint Saudi-US military committee, which had been due to convene in Washington on Aug. 29-30.
The Defense Ministry turned down a US request to reschedule the meeting, saying Gen. Al-Mahaya, who heads the Saudi side in the committee, “had prior engagements preventing him from traveling to Washington at the present time”.
Gen. Al-Mahaya stayed away from the meeting even though he was vacationing in Washington with his family just 10 days before the talks were scheduled to take place.
arabnews.com |
