U.S.-Saudi Arabia - Abdulrahman Al-Saeed - Conference

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ITEM OF INTEREST
May 18, 2009

U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium
Conference Transcripts -- Session 3
Abdulrahman Al-Saeed

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 third and final session, "Through Saudi Arabia's Window and Other Lenses: Middle East Dynamics and Stakeholder Challenges". Among the featured speakers was Abdulrahman Al-Saeed, Director General of the Specialized Studies Center in Riyadh and Advisor to the Royal Court.

Separate emails will provide each panelist's remarks and the question and answer period transcript. 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 3
Abdulrahman Al-Saeed
Director General, Specialized Studies Center-Riyadh
Advisor to the Royal Court

[Abdulrahman Al-Saeed] Good afternoon. It�s always nice to come back to Washington. First time I came to this town, it�s a town not a big city yet, was 1976. I joined the Center for Arab Studies as an outside observer. I don�t know how you place that in an educational institute, but that�s what I was doing. Yesterday, I walked around Georgetown with a friend. And I saw some of the students walking around the campus. I looked at my friend and I said what�s happening? The students, the student population is getting younger. He had very thick glasses, and he looked at me and he said Abdulrahman, they�re not getting younger, you�re getting older. And I said, much older.

I�m happy to be with you here today, to talk about, essentially I was supposed to talk about the Arab Peace Initiative. But then everybody talked about it � I have nothing else to say on that issue. I felt maybe I should talk about the new environment in Saudi Arabia. We have now what you may call the outstretched environment, or outstretched hand, whereby King Abdullah has put together first the Arab Peace Plan in 2002. It sounded then like Saudi Arabia was not exactly in some minds, not exactly the place from which such a plan could come from, but they didn�t know what was coming. A couple of years after that, King Abdullah initiated the National Dialogue. This dialogue, as you may know, has in fact penetrated all parts of our society. It has in fact been participated in by men, women, school students � by everyone in the country. And it has really achieved great results for us. As a result, I think the kinds of tensions that were present in Saudi society at that time have probably, have actually eased a great deal. So much so that in fact we have now a new environment. You read the press for example. You see a new openness. You see a new boldness in our media that is really unprecedented in our country, and some say in our part of the world, in fact. Then of course we had the Interfaith Dialogue. This is another outstretched hand, or an extended hand to the rest of the world, to other religions, to other faiths, other people in this world. And you know, some of us have had there � about this, until we saw what happened in Madrid, until we saw what happened in New York, and we were � by the results, so much so that I think every Saudi you meet takes great pride in the results that have been achieved as of course, as a result of this initiative. The peace process, or the API, the Arab Peace Initiative, is part �, it�s part of this � It�s of course also an attempt to create a new environment of peace, cooperation, and hopefully stability in our part of the world. The last of these initiatives, you may all have heard about, is King Abdullah�s call for the conciliation and solidarity within the Arab world. And this has, of course been received very well by the other Arab countries, so that we have in our own fact the beginning of reconciliation within the Arab world.

One can of course talk about all of these things but I can go back to my student days when talking about the Arab Peace Initiative. I recall, and maybe those who are of my age recall when we talked to people here about the Arab-Israeli conflict, everyone will tell you, you guys knew only one kind of language � it�s the language of war. You have no peace proposals, you only know to talk in militant terms. And you know, it was a difficult position to be in. You tried to defend but people did not receive your defense well, until in 2002, we have the Arab Peace Initiative. Now, for seven years, the Arab Peace Initiative stood with no response from the other side � not only from the other side, but also from this side here. We were really, someone like me was really perplexed. Here we were told that you Arabs cannot speak the language of peace, that you only know the language of war. And then when we spoke and when we advanced this proposal, it was not well received. In fact, only I guess two or three days ago, the Foreign Minister of Israel, Liberman � I don�t know if you�ve heard what he said. He said this peace initiative will end up in destroying Israel. Now I thought wars destroyed countries, not peace proposals. So it�s almost like damned if you do, damned if you don�t. But what all this really boils down to is a new environment in Saudi Arabia, a new outlook. We have a leader who has got vision, who has got the boldness to come out, and speak and ask for the cooperation and the understanding of the rest of the world. We have actually achieved �, and maybe if you have any questions on this I can try to respond to them later on.

Thank you very much.

[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 Three Video

Courtesy New America Foundation

Video MP3

Speaker Biography:

Abdulrahman Al-Saeed
Director General, Specialized Studies Center-Riyadh
Advisor to the Royal Courts

The Honorable Abdulrahman Al-Saeed is an advisor to the Royal Court. He is also director-general of the Specialized Studies Center, and a member of a number of government committees. Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Saeed holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Human Relations from Kansas University and a Ph.D. in political sociology from the University of Missouri.

Source: New America Foundation / Committee for International Trade

AGENDA

Panel III: Through Saudi Arabia's Window and Other Lenses: Middle East Dynamics and Stakeholder Challenges

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