Amid Tension, Bush Meets Saudi Prince
Tuesday: The crown prince of Saudi Arabia arrives in Houston.
Thursday, April 25, 2002
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
WASHINGTON — Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah wrapped up his first face-to-face meeting with President George W. Bush on Thursday, pressing Bush to lean on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to temper his hard-line approach toward the Palestinians.
In turn, Bush was urging the crown prince to rally other Arab leaders behind a Mideast peace process and to pressure Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to end terrorism.
Meeting at the Western White House — Bush's 1,600-acre ranch in Crawford, Texas — the president and crown prince were joined by Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal accompanied Crown Prince Abdullah.
Success on any of the matters seems elusive, adding to the chilling relations between the allies over seemingly slight cooperation for the U.S.-led war on terror and growing anti-American sentiments in the Saudi kingdom.
Privately, the Saudis say the United States has lost credibility since Sharon has continued a military operation despite Bush's call on him two weeks ago to withdraw from Palestinian occupied territories without delay.
A day earlier, Secretary of State Colin Powell had expressed his skepticism over Saudi Arabia's claim that it did not support Palestinian suicide bombers.
U.S. officials had received assurances that $100 million raised in a recent Saudi telethon was not going to suicide bombers or their families, but to rebuild Palestinian neighborhoods.
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Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah
Powell told the Senate Appropriations Committee the money actually went to Hamas, the pro-Palestinian terrorist organization that has taken responsibility for many suicide bombings in Israel.
"We have seen some indications — and we've even seen an Arab newspaper, handed to me by [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat, I might add — where some of the money, at least according to this Arab newspaper advertisement, would be going to elements of Hamas. So there are some troubling aspects as to how that telethon money would be distributed," Powell said.
The skepticism at the State Department represents just one example of the disconnect between the nations as the two leaders come to the table.
Praised for being a moderate and ally in the U.S. war against terrorism, Abdullah brings with him a peace plan for the Middle East, which would offer Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for the return of Arab lands seized in the 1967 Six-Day War — a plan the Israelis have not said they would endorse.
Experts have cautioned not to expect much from the meeting, and say that progress may be made only on minor though politically meaningful steps toward Middle East peace.
That could be attributable to Abdullah's tenuous position as leader of a nation whose Islamic clerics and Arab populace accuse the United States of allowing Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
"There is more tension, more anti-U.S. feelings ... than in a long time," said Anthony Cordesman, a former undersecretary for national security and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "People are very angry at Israel. They link the U.S. to this."
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President Bush
According to reports, some mosques in Saudi Arabia have been ending dawn and evening prayers with a call for the destruction of the United States, and public demonstrations against the United States and Jews have become more tolerated by the regime since the days immediately following Sept. 11.
The Saudi government is closely aligned with the powerful Islamist hierarchy, which has been responsible for a number of hate-filled speeches in recent weeks. In one diatribe at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, carried by several Arabic TV and radio networks, Sheik Abdul-Rahman al Sudais prayed to Allah to "terminate the Jews," whom he called "the scum of humanity."
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s longtime ambassador to Britain published a poem last week saying the bombers died "to honor my God’s world."
Experts said Bush would have to balance longtime U.S support for Israel with the tenuous relationship the country has with Saudi Arabia, the world’s chief oil exporter and strategic representative of the Arab world. The goal of Thursday’s talks would be to quell anti-U.S. anger by indicating to Abdullah that the United States supports a movement toward an Arab-favored peace, while not hurting the Israeli friendship.
"I think there is going to be more pressure on President Bush than Crown Prince Abdullah because we need Saudi Arabia more than Saudi Arabia needs us," asserted Rob Sobhani, an Islamic studies professor at Georgetown University who just returned from a trip to the region.
Sobhani said Bush must help restore U.S. credibility to the region in order to maintain a coalition for the war on terror and for any future action against Iraq, and to maintain global energy security. But all of it will rest on an agreement on how to deal with the Middle East.
"I think Abdullah is going to ask Bush to put pressure on Israel and Bush is going to ask Abdullah to calm down the anger in the Saudi Arabian public against Jews," he said, adding that if Abdullah feels an understanding is reached between the two leaders, he will be able to convey it to the Arab world effectively.
Cordesman points out that there is a lot of mistrust on both sides. Arabs in that region have heard recent declarations by members of the U.S. Congress to stick by their Israeli brethren, and Americans are leery of a nation that says publicly it is a friend, while protesters burn American flags on the street.
Fox News' James Rosen and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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