Saudi Arabia ... 'the kernel of evil'
nytimes.com
August 14, 2002
Analysis: U.S. - Saudi Relations Eroded Post - Sept. 11
By REUTERS
Filed at 10:15 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia have deteriorated so far since the attacks of last Sept. 11 that few in Washington still call the desert kingdom a true friend while many view it with outright hostility.
The fissures, which have been discussed among policymakers and foreign policy experts for months, recently came into the open after RAND Corporation analyst Laurent Murawiec gave a briefing to a Pentagon advisory panel arguing that Saudi Arabia ought to be considered an adversary of the United States.
``The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader,'' Muraweic said in the briefing, that was leaked to The Washington Post. ``Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies ... It is the kernel of evil, the prime mover.''
Although the Bush administration disavowed these sentiments, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did acknowledge difficulties in the relationship, highlighted by the fact that 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were Saudi nationals.
``Saudi Arabia ... has a broad spectrum of activities some of which, obviously, just like our country, we agree with and some we may not. It is, nonetheless, a country where we have a lot of forces located and we have had a long relationship,'' Rumsfeld said in what to many seemed a half-hearted endorsement.
According to University of Vermont political scientist F. Gregory Gause, author of ``Oil Monarchies: Domestic and Security Challenges in the Arab Gulf States,'' U.S.-Saudi relations have always been more a marriage of convenience than a friendship.
``On neither side is there a strong public constituency for the relationship. It is a relationship between elites, based on a clear understanding of mutual interest. There is no sentiment in it,'' he wrote in a recent article in World Policy Journal.
The U.S.-Saudi deal was and remains simple. The Saudis maintain a stable supply of oil to U.S. and world markets while the United States acts as ultimate guarantor of Saudi security and turns a blind eye to internal affairs in the kingdom, including violations of human rights and the rights of women.
For some Americans, Sept. 11 smashed the foundations of that deal because it highlighted the Saudi role in exporting a radical form of Islam around the world, which critics regard as profoundly anti-western, anti-American and anti-Semitic.
``It is time for the United States to rethink its relationship with Riyadh. For we are now at war with terror and its sponsor, radical Islam. And in this war, the Saudi regime is more part of the problem than part of the solution,'' said William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, an influential conservative magazine.
Americans expected their friends to stand by them after Sept. 11, without question or hesitation. They also thought the Saudis still ought to be grateful for the U.S. war against Iraq in 1991, which was in large part designed to protect the kingdom from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
NO STAGING GROUND
Instead, the Saudis first tried to deny that many of their nationals had carried out the Sept. 11 attacks. Their cooperation in rolling up financial networks that supported Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda movement was seen as halfhearted and incomplete.
And now, Saudi Arabia is on record as refusing to allow its soil to be used as a staging ground, should President Bush decide to attack Iraq in the next stage of his ``war on terrorism.''
Within Saudi Arabia, there is anger and incomprehension at what is seen as unquestioning and uncritical U.S. support for Israel in its struggle against the Palestinians. Many Saudis also sympathize with the Iraqi people who have suffered through years of U.S.-led international sanctions.
Critics of Saudi Arabia focus their ire on the strict brand of Islam practiced in the kingdom known as Wahhabism. They say Saudi-financed religious schools teaching Wahhabism around the Muslim world have inspired an entire generation to grow up hating America.
Former CIA director James Woolsey recently compared Wahhabism to the virulent nationalism that took hold in Germany after the First World War which laid the seeds for Adolf Hitler to emerge.
``Just as angry and extreme German nationalism of that period was the soil in which Nazism grew, Wahhabi and Islamist extremism today is the soil in which al Qaeda and its sister terrorist organizations are growing,'' he told the House of Representatives International Relations Committee.
Some also argue that U.S. dependence on Saudi oil, which now accounts for about 10 percent of its consumption, is declining as new sources open up in the Russia and other former Soviet Republics. However, with a quarter of the world's proven oil reserves, Saudi Arabia is likely to remain the world's largest oil producer for the foreseeable future.
Some argue that engineering a rift with Saudi Arabia now would be foolish. Even if they do not provide ground facilities for a U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Saudis could still play a vital role by granting overflight clearances and logistical support. The Saudi stance will be closely watched by other Gulf states, whose cooperation Washington wants.
``Tacit support, at a minimum, will be very important,'' said former assistant secretary of State Richard Murphy.
With war against Iraq on the horizon, even some of those who do not much like Saudi Arabia believe this is not the time to court new enemies.
``They (the Saudis) are the center of the religious extremism that's caused us so much trouble. They give aid and comfort to the clerics who are preaching anti-Americanism,'' said Sen. Fred Thompson, a Tennessee Republican.
``A situation like that I don't think can last forever. But for right now, we don't need additional enemies. We need additional friends in that area. And hopefully, we can hold it together until we take care of the Iraqi situation,'' he said.
Copyright 2002 Reuters Ltd. |
