King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz granted his first interview since his ascension to the throne on August 1, 2005 with ABC News reporter Barbara Walters.  The interview was aired in the United States on October 14, 2005 in segments broadcast on ABC's 20/20 and Nightline.  Following the Nightline segment, Walters talked with Ambassador Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations about King Abdullah's comments in the interview and other issues in the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia.  Here are his comments.

BARBARA WALTERS: I'm joined now by Richard Haass. He served as an advisor to both President Bushs - in the National Security Council for the first President Bush and then in the State Department until 2003 for the current president.

Ambassador Haass is now president of the Council on Foreign Relations and he is the author of a new book called The Opportunity: America's Moment to Alter History's Course.

Welcome Ambassador, let's talk about the opportunity to alter Saudi Arabia's course.

Is the fact that he's doing this interview with an American, but with a woman, is that significant as he suggests?

AMBASSADOR HAASS: It's significant to the extent that it obviously shows the he and the Saudis are aware they have a problem and they want to effect American public opinion, media opinion, Congressional opinion. But ultimately, what's going to depend, is not what they say on television, but what they do. And they have a long ways to go still.

WALTERS: The King talked about trying to make some reforms for women. He pushed it a little bit because he has the religious conservatives so against it. Do you think those reforms are really going to happen, that women can drive, that women can vote, that women can do things without a male's permission?

HAASS: I think you're likely to see gradual process in women getting the vote, as part of the larger process of Saudis getting the vote for meaningful choices. Things like driving, the veil, those are more symbolic. Those really do go right up against the religious conservatism. Those will probably come much more slowly.

WALTERS: Let's talk about Iraq. You had the Saudi foreign minister saying, and worrying Washington, when he said that Iraq is on the verge of disintegration, leading perhaps into a civil war. Then the king says we're going to be neutral. Why this discrepancy?

HAASS: Well, the Saudi comments have been extremely harsh. They have been somewhat frustrating. A lot of their young men have gone into Iraq and made the situation there worse. And diplomatically the Saudis haven't really lifted much of a finger to help the struggling government there. But what they're really worried about are two things. One is Iranian influence. And second of all is the primacy there, the move to power there, of the Shia in Iraq who are a majority there, but who are a small, say 10-15%, minority in Saudi Arabia.

WALTERS: But why isn't the King, perhaps with some of the other Arab nations, doing something to be helpful?

HAASS: Part of it is just this Arab allergy about, against, getting involved in their neighbors. They're also not quite sure what to do. What are they going do? They really don't have forces to send there. They could help financially. And there they have not done as much as they could or should do.

WALTERS: The king talks about the fact that there are Saudis who are fighting in the insurgency, or at least implies that there are. He says he has nothing to do with that. Can't he stop that in any way?

HAASS: He could certainly stop any young man with a one-way ticket getting on a plane out of Saudi Arabia heading toward anywhere else in the Middle East, particularly if it's to Syria because that's the most common transit point into Iraq. So there, the Saudis could do more, for sure.

WALTERS: You know, your own report, the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the Saudis are sponsoring extremism, and terrorism with the madrassah schools. And he said that's illogical, why do that. So, who's right?

HAASS: The Saudis have made progress in one area. I think they have cut down on the amount of money going from Saudi Arabia directly into the hands of Al Qaeda and other terrorists. There you have to give them an improving grade. The problem is what the Saudis are also letting to continue. And that is money going into radical education, in Saudi Arabia and around the world. It is this soft money that the Saudis are allowing to go to schools and other Islamic institutions. That's the problem.

WALTERS: He says no. He says he's stopped that.

HAASS: He hasn't stopped it and in some ways he can't stop it. There's a bargain in Saudi Arabia. You have the House of Saud, this family that rules, has something of a bargain with the religious establishment. Like most bargains it's somewhat uneasy. They can perhaps dial it down a little bit , but I don't think they can stop it. That's probably asking too much, but in any case, it's asking more than they are willing to risk.

WALTERS: Abdullah has been king for just two months. But he has been running the country as Crown Prince for many years because the king was ill. Can this king, make a difference. Is Abdullah of Saudi Arabia going to be a major figure in the world?

HAASS: The biggest question might be demographic. He's already in his early 80s. An awful lot depends on how long he can keep his health and how long he can actually rule. But even though he's an absolute monarch he doesn't rule absolutely. He has to share power with his brothers, with all the princes, thousands of members of the royal family, he has the religious establishment. He will only be able to make a difference if he's willing to take risks and if he's in power for quite a number of years.

WALTERS: Taking risks, is that something you think that this king can do?

HAASS: He has something of a reputation as a reformer. He's an intriguing man. We couldn't do better right now than Abdullah if we had to choose who would run Saudi Arabia. The real question again is time. How hard he is willing to press it. Whether on the issues you've raised, like women, on democratic reforms more generally, on doing something about the quality of Saudi society which really isn't part of the modern world. One has to hope, though, that he does have the time, because it is very difficult to see one of the alternatives doing better.

WALTERS: On the question of oil, the king says, look, it's not up to me -- there are other factors. Is any of it up to him?

HAASS: The Saudis can't expand their output meaningfully overnight. They can probably expand it somewhat over the next few years. But the biggest factor in oil prices right now really is about the demand for it. It is the thirst, if you will, coming out of this country, the Untied States and increasingly coming out of India and China. So Saudi Arabia, while it's the biggest exporter in the world, the king actually has a point. The much more significant development in oil right now is the demand for oil around the world.

WALTERS: Thank you Ambassador Haass.

[Broadcast transcribed by SUSRIS.]