At the annual meeting of the Middle East Institute last November, Wyche Fowler, MEI's Board Chairman and former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia introduced the event's keynote speaker, Prince Turki al-Faisal.  Ambassador Fowler shared personal insights of the new Saudi Ambassador to the United States based on their joint experiences in the Kingdom in the late 1990s.  Here are his words:

Last week I had an opportunity to interview Prince Turki in his office at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington.  He provided an overview of his mission in the United States, a discussion of the issues that surround Saudi-US relations, a tour d'horizon of regional developments that occupy our news headlines and much more.  SUSRIS is grateful to the Ambassador for addressing these questions for our readers.  

Here is part one of the SUSRIS interview with Prince Turki al-Faisal.  Part two will be provided on Tuesday, March 14, 2006. 

Patrick W. Ryan

Prince Turki al-Faisal
Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the United States
Washington, DC, March 2, 2006

SUSRIS: Thank you for taking time to talk with us today. Let�s start with the current relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. You mentioned in your recent public statements that the government-to-government relationship is on solid ground, and that you have been charged by your boss with talking to the Congress and the American people.

PRINCE TURKI: That�s true, yes indeed. The government-to-government relationship is going very well. We have a saying in Arabic, which goes "alnas ala dini mulukihim." The translation of that is "people follow the religion of their kings. "

So when King Abdullah was Crown Prince and met with President Bush twice -- and they actually became very good friends as a result of those meetings -- those who follow them in the governments have taken on the same empathy and the same sympathy, if you like, for each other. So the government-to-government relations have improved considerably since 2001 particularly during the last meeting in April (2005) in Crawford, Texas. 

As you know that meeting was followed by a joint statement of both leaders, in which they stressed the common interests that bind the two countries and talked about how to improve the relationship between them, in terms of human exchanges, in terms of energy policy, in terms of the strategic alliance with the establishment of the Strategic Dialogue. This Dialogue has already met. The first time was in Crawford Texas between the two foreign ministers or foreign secretaries and the second time was in Jeddah last November. The next time will be in April or May this year in Washington. 

There are offshoots of that dialogue, six working groups that deal with energy, security and intelligence, that deal with military affairs, financial affairs, visa and consular affairs and with another group which has a multiple purpose to it, a partnership in education and development of human resources in both countries. The first meeting of these sub groups is going to take place this month. 

It is headed on the American side by Liz Cheney [U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Coordinator for Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiatives] and on the Saudi side by me. It will have representatives from various government institutions on both sides. 

From the Saudi side it is going to be composed of people representing the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Information, the government human rights commission and of course the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and whoever we feel is required to talk about subjects that will be discussed. 

We expect that on the American side it will be equally representative of various government departments whether it is homeland security or education and so forth and, of course, the State Department. These are the practical steps that have followed from the meetings between the King and the President. 

Then there is the Congressional side. Our severest critics are in the Congress. And that is part of my brief from the King when I was coming here. I asked him how do you want me to deal with President Bush and the American people and he said, �Just be frank with them.� Since the government-to-government issue is going so well -- it is practically handled by the King and President Bush, they call each other on the phone, they send emissaries between them -- my concentration is more on reaching out to Congress, both houses, and meeting with the critics of Saudi Arabia. I can hopefully answer their concerns and questions about the Kingdom and express to them our concerns and our questions about how we view the relationship from Saudi Arabia to the United States. 

Then of course the other concern we have is talking with the American people. All the surveys we have seen on Saudi Arabia showed that before September 11th the country was relatively understood. It was among the middle range of countries that American people felt were friendly, and on certain issues they felt there was a special relationship between us. Since September 11th that position has dropped dramatically. Part of my brief is going to be to try to recoup the previous position that Saudi Arabia enjoyed in the American public�s view and hopefully try to improve on that. That is why an outreach program by the embassy has been devised. It is reaching out to the people in America in their home states. It is part and parcel of that mission. 

SUSRIS: The visits you have made in the few months since becoming Ambassador to the United States have been reported in the press � Georgia, Arizona, Texas, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania � as upbeat and positive sessions.

Prince Turki: That�s right. 

SUSRIS: How would you characterize the reaction to your visits?

Prince Turki: I found the reception extremely gratifying. A great deal of warmth, which is not surprising to me, and a great deal of curiosity. People want to know everything about Saudi Arabia.

I remember when I came to school in the United States some years ago. On the first day I was going into the school a young boy came up to me and slapped me on the backside and introduced himself and I introduced myself and he kept asking me questions. Where are you from? What is it like? It was very much like the Bedouins in Saudi Arabia -- very engaging and appealing and made me feel at home in those days. 

I think that spirit continues. There�s a great thirst for information and knowledge, not just about the country as a geographic entity but about the people and the culture and the history. This effort is not confined to me alone, as you know there is an outreach program that private enterprise has undertaken over the last few years, with business people and professionals coming on their own time to meet with American organizations, government and non-government. Some of them have also shared with me their view that there is a great deal of curiosity about the Kingdom. So by going out to these various places in America I hope to be able to respond to this curiosity. 

SUSRIS: What do you see as the greatest area of interest about the Kingdom when you meet with American audiences?

Prince Turki: I think it is mostly the issue of culture. Certain givens in your culture, in the view of some Americans, look to be almost diametrically opposed to what they consider Saudi culture or Saudi background. But when we sit down together to talk about these issues and the questions are posed an understanding develops. 

Take, for example, the role of women in Saudi Arabia. The picture here is that our women are wrapped up in these black bags and kept tied to their bedposts, absolutely devoid of any character or initiative or personality. Yet when we sit down and talk and especially when they see Saudi women engaged with them it changes the picture for them completely. Saudi women are pretty much like women everywhere. Historically women have been downtrodden and one must admit that we men have been extremely, if you like, misogynistic toward women but that is changing. It is not just changing in America it is changing everywhere, including Saudi Arabia. I remind people I meet that when the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were written and signed by the founding fathers and became the law of the land the role of women in the US was not very good. They were not given the right to vote, they didn�t have inheritance rights, couldn�t form their own businesses or anything like that. It took you two hundred years of development and social education and mobility and so on to reach where you have reached. 

America�s democracy is still a work in progress. It hasn�t reached the point that you will accept as the final perfect system. It is the same with us. We have our ideas published and written down in the Koran and our Bill of Rights is defined in the sayings of the Prophet. We have a very high value system for a society and in practice we still have a very long way to go to reach these heights, but we are moving in the right direction. 

Last night I was at a dinner where the question arose about the role of women in Saudi Arabia. I mentioned to the dinner guests that in 1962 the literacy rate for Saudi women could not have exceeded five percent. By 2002 it was more than 80 percent. So we made a dramatic jump in 40 years time due to education. I mentioned that today in Saudi Arabia there are more women than men educated in universities. And they clearly outperformed the men completely in academic standards and achievement. 

That change occurred because the introduction of education in Saudi Arabia for women occurred in 1962. And so the picture for women in Saudi Arabia is not as bleak as some would have you believe or some actually see it. There are other issues that are viewed like that. It�s not that the kingdom is not devoid of discrepancies if you like, or contradictions about issues whether it is human rights or women�s rights or labor laws, etcetera, but we are moving in the right direction. We are moving forward. We are not going backward.

SUSRIS: Can we focus on Congress and the political atmosphere in the United States? The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia was roundly discussed during the 2004 presidential campaign season, as I�m sure you know. Last year there was continued interest in Congress about the relationship. A number of legislative initiatives, the Accountability Act and so forth, surfaced criticisms of the relationship. How do you see the task before you of communicating your view of the bilateral relationship to the Congress?

Prince Turki: Well, I�m a very practical person and I think for us to pursue the aims of what our leaders have set out for us, which is a joint interest, joint policy, joint strategic outlook, etcetera, then we must translate these directions into practical steps and practical achievements. However, I do understand there is a great deal of questioning about Saudi Arabia in the Congress.

In September I presented a copy of my credentials to the Secretary of State and that way I became official. After that, and before presenting them to the President in December, one of the issues in Congress was the hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee headed by Senator Specter. The title of the hearing was �Saudi Arabia, Friend or Foe.� 

Frankly I thought that was a bit insulting to Saudi Arabians because we have never been a foe of the United States. On the contrary, in the last 60 years or more we have always considered ourselves to be a good friend of the United States and felt that the US looked upon us as a good friend. 

We stood with the US in the 40�s, 50�s, 60�s and 70�s when there was a Cold War as very firm allies in the fight against Communism. We carried out responsibilities in our part of the world. We felt we could be helpful in that fight and spent much time and energy and money and sometimes even human life in the fight against Communism. 

The 80� and the 90�s were a time of changes when the Soviet Union was disappearing and we consistently remained a strategic ally of the United States despite the differences that we may have had. And we had important differences like on Palestine. But even there we agreed with the United States that the strategic aim of both countries was to reach a peaceful solution to Palestine and the issue of the conflict between Israel and the Arabs. 

It was Saudi Arabia that led the Arab world with the Fahd Peace Plan in 1981. That for the first time presented an arrangement for all the Arab countries to recognize the existence of Israel. More recently the Abdullah Peace Plan which was more specific and more detailed. It calls not just for Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem but also for total recognition of Israel by the Arab states and normalization of relations. And this policy of making peace with Israel that Saudi Arabia spearheaded has now become the policy of all of the Arab countries. The Arab countries in the annual Arab summits have committed to it. 

So this hearing about Saudi Arabia as a foe to the United States clearly indicated that there was a great deal of ignorance about the role of Saudi Arabia. One of the first senators that I met when I came hear was Senator Specter. I went and called on him. We talked about what his concerns were, which he had expressed in that hearing. They were mainly about education and the direction of religion in Saudi Arabia and so on. Hopefully I have reached with the Senator a respectful friendship, if you like, where I can supply him with information that he requires. He doesn�t have to search for an interlocutor when he has concerns or questions to ask. He knows that I am here and that I am available as are members of the embassy and my staff. So developing relationships is very important. That is just one example of what I am trying to do. There are others in the Congress, both houses, that I have met and that I am in the process of meeting. 

SUSRIS: What is your reaction to the current tempest over acquisition of leases to terminals in some American seaports by a company in Dubai?

Prince Turki: I tell my American interlocutors that it would be amiss for me to comment on the deal between America and the UAE. But one thing I found is that in the debate on the issue, at the beginning, there was an attempt to make it into almost a racial issue and the President put a stop to that. He came out forcefully, which we are very grateful for. He said we cannot deal with this as an Arab issue or a British issue or a Chinese issue. So he took it off the table as a racial issue, which was very courageous of him and we are much gratified by that. He is that kind of man to step forward and take a position clearly that people know where he stands and that he stood very forthrightly on that issue. So it is now a question for your government on issues of security and procedure and economic welfare and things like that.

Part two will be provided on Tuesday, March 14, 2006

For more: http://www.SUSRIS.org

• Issues of the Day: Saudi Ambassador to the US On Sunday Talk Show - SUSRIS IOI - Feb. 6, 2006

• Community and Cooperation - Prince Turki Al-Faisal - SUSRIS IOI - December 2, 2005

• The Global Scourge of Terrorism: Ambassador Prince Turki al Faisal Shares His Outlook - SUSRIS Item of Interest - Nov. 8, 2005

• Prince Turki Al-Faisal's Views on Terrorist Attacks and Bin Laden - SUSRIS IOI - Dec. 7, 2004

• Prince Turki al-Faisal Talks With Charlie Rose - The Charlie Rose Show - PBS - February 13, 2006

  • Part 1 - Relations, Oil

  • Part 2 - Iraq, Iran, War on Terror

  • Part 3 - Middle East Peace

About Prince Turki al Faisal

• Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia Bio

• BBC Profile

• Global Security.org