U.S.-Saudi Arabia - Rita Hauser - Conference - CIT / New America Foundation

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ITEM OF INTEREST
May 8, 2009

U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium
Conference Transcripts -- Session 1
Dr. Rita E. Hauser

Editor's Note:

Last week a major forum addressing the state of and prospects for the relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was convened in Washington by the New America Foundation (NAF) and the Committee for International Trade (CIT) of the Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Distinguished speakers spent the day providing perspectives and insights on what the relationship should look like, how economics was shaping the national security picture vis a vis the relationship, the challenges for America in the region and how the perspective on these challenges look from the Saudi Arabian point of view.

Today we are pleased to provide the transcripts from the first session, "A Forward Projection of What the Saudi-U.S. Relationship Should Look Like and Needs to Achieve." Among the featured speakers was Doctor Rita E. Hauser, Chair, International Peace Institute and Chair, Director's Council, New America Foundation.

Separate emails will provide each panelist's remarks and the question and answer period transcript. Transcripts for the remaining panels and luncheon remarks will be provided over the next few days. You can find all of the conference materials and related links at a new SUSRIS Special Section. [ "U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium" - Conference Special Section ]

Video MP3

U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium
Conference Transcripts -- Session 1
Dr. Rita E. Hauser

[Dr. Rita Hauser] Thank you, very much, ladies and gentlemen. For those who are not present at dinner last night, I'm sorry you missed it. I had the pleasure of introducing our speakers, my good friends Prince Turki and Brent Scowcroft. Brent sends his regrets. He had to be elsewhere today.

But since I was a polite host, I couldn't take issue with some of the comments that each of them made so I'm going to use my time here to do that. Particularly on the Palestine-Israel issue. Brent and I have arguing and discussing this for, I can't tell you how long. He summed up his position by stating last night that it's all up to the American president.

Well, I would say a conditional yes, a conditional maybe. It is not sufficient. A president's engagement of course -- without that nothing happens. But in our history in this area and the Palestine-Israel conflict, each time an American president has taken a very active role, it has alas been to the exclusion of other players.

We have generally tended to push aside others who have interests and who can bring something to the table, particularly the European Union and the host of Arab countries, which I can say was summed up in King Abdullah's very original and very wise approach in '02.

Now I fear that that may well happen again, given the engagement thus far by Obama, Mitchell, Clinton, etc. And in my opinion it simply won't work. And I would like to start out by talking first about Hamas, which to me is the central element in unlocking the deadlock at the moment between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Hamas is on the ground and will control whatever happens on the ground in Gaza. And I don't know how many of you here have been to Gaza since the war. It is lamentable beyond lamenting. And there is no way that any reconstruction can take place without the involvement on the ground of Hamas. This means in my way of thinking that you have got to get Hamas and Fatah back into operation together. Now, that's very difficult for U.S. president to propose for all the reasons that are self-evident to everyone in this room. Therefore, it seems to me a good way to start doing this is to let the Europeans continue their tentative dialogue with Hamas.

I would urge upon my friend, Prince Turki, that rather than as he said last night, having the Egyptians -- who have lots of conflicts with Hamas-- do it, that the Saudis and the other Arabs come back into the picture and try to seek a reconcile government between Hamas and Fatah. From my way of thinking nothing is possible on the Palestine-Israel front until you have a unified Palestinian government. And I think it is very much in the interest of the current Israeli government to prevent that from happening. As I always thought and said long ago, that Sharon would pull out of Gaza, not only because of the demographic considerations but because he believed it would lead to chaos among the Palestinians and therefore, preclude having a real partner that he would be compelled to deal with. And that is how the events played out. So that's the first thing that I would urge an American administration now to do, which is to let others do the task with Hamas.

Secondly, yes of course we have to press on the Israelis. I find that's going to be a very difficult task, given the make up of the current Israeli government, which is not exactly a normative kind of government that we are used to. It is a very right wing government, very much hinged in the coalition on parties that are not interested in the peace process.

So it's going to be very difficult and merely having George Mitchell, whom I admire greatly, run around the area and propose various things is not going to produce any effective result. A lot of it is going to have to come from within the area and with the support of Saudi Arabia and others of the Arab nations in the region. And there I share Zbigniew's view that we really need an effective U.S.-Saudi working alliance.

The other question that Prince Turki just briefly touched on which is Lebanon-Syria, I would like to come to that. Lebanon hopefully will have peaceful elections in about six weeks. I can't project the outcome but I think it will be fairly to safe to say that Hezbollah will score as well, perhaps even better, and be very much a part of a Lebanese government.

And so I always put the question, if we deal with Lebanon and there in the American body politic there is a general view that we want a unified Lebanon, we deal with Hezbollah in that government. I don't understand why it becomes so taboo to think of dealing with the Palestinians including Hamas. And in my prediction as I said before, we will get there, but we will get there painfully.

Lebanon is going to face a series of very difficult challenges, first among them is the result of the tribunal which will shortly hand down its conclusions as to the Hariri assassination. It was setup under the UN resolution. From what I am hearing from the prosecutor, whom I spoke to in New York, I think there will clearly be indications of Syrian involvement. The only thing that is not clear is as yet how high up will be those who will be named in the, what we would call, indictment in the United States legal system. That's going to be a difficult issue to deal with but it will have to be confronted.

I believe the Israelis, if they are pressed by this administration, they will always as they try to do deflect and say let's do Syria first, Syria is easy to do, let's leave the Palestinian issue second. I don't share that view, but that's the way they will probably approach the question.

On that one too, I find it difficult to see how we are going to have any kind of a breakthrough given that both Bibi Netanyahu and Lieberman in the course of the campaign repeatedly said that Golan will not be given up and they have not had any forthcoming approaches to some of the other territorial issues including Shebaa Farms as has just been mentioned.

So the U.S. on those two key issues has got some very heavy duty going, and I don't believe as I said at the outset that we can do it alone. It is inconceivable to me that with all the goodwill and the devotion that Obama and company will have to this question, that we will get anywhere without the support of others, particularly the Arabs and the European Union.

And I would urge a direct shift to bringing in lots of partners in order to accomplish what has been the most elusive, the most difficult and in many ways the most depressing foreign policy challenges we have faced. It is now right past 40 years of an occupation by Israel of the West Bank and Gaza. And as you have heard and I know you know that in many intellectual circles, in Palestine particularly, there is a view that this has become a permanent occupation, and that it will never be resolved by the forces of diplomacy but only by the long term demography in which the Palestinians will ultimately outweigh the Israelis. That's a very doleful view, but it is one that is gaining currency given the perpetual stalemate they have had over all these decades.

So those are my comments about what we have to do on a realistic basis to get this process moving in the right direction.

Thank you.

[Visit the SUSRIS Special Section "U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium" for the transcripts from this and other panels and additional resources.]

Session One Video

Courtesy New America Foundation

Video MP3

Speaker Biography:

Dr. Rita E. Hauser
Chairperson, International Peace Institute
Chair, Director's Council, New America Foundation

Rita E. Hauser has been Chair of the International Peace Institute Board of Directors since 1993. Dr. Hauser is President of the Hauser Foundation. She is an international lawyer and was a senior partner for more than twenty years at the New York City law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Dr. Hauser served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from 2001 to 2004. She was the founding chair of The Advisory Board of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy and is a trustee of the RAND Corporation. She serves as a director of many organizations, including: The International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and the RAND Corporation, among many others. She served on the Visiting Committee of the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University, and is vice-chairman of the Dean's Advisory Board at Harvard Law School. Dr. Hauser was national co-chair of the last Harvard University Campaign. She holds advanced degrees from the University of Strasbourg in France, Harvard and NYU Law Schools and the University of Paris Law Faculty. She was awarded the Albert Gallatin Medal, the highest honor for public service of the New York University (2006), and the Vanderbilt Medal, the highest honor of the New York University School of Law (2004), as well as the Harvard Medal for distinguished service to Harvard University (1999).

AGENDA

Panel I: A Forward Projection of What the Saudi-U.S. Relationship Should Look Like and Needs to Achieve

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