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SPECIAL REPORT
January 23, 2009

Relationship and Stability at Risk

 
Editor�s Note:

Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi Ambassador to the United States and to the United Kingdom, and former director of intelligence has been outspoken in recent months about the United States' policies in the region, especially regarding the crisis in Gaza and the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. In an op-ed, first published in FT.com yesterday, Prince Turki was blunt in his appraisal of the reaction in the Kingdom to the Israeli strikes in Gaza, the diminished prospects for peace and the potential for damage to U.S. interests in the region, "Unless the new US administration takes forceful steps to prevent any further suffering and slaughter of Palestinians, the peace process, the US-Saudi relationship and the stability of the region are at risk."

Saudi patience is running out
Turki al-Faisal 

In my decades as a public servant, I have strongly promoted the Arab-Israeli peace process. During recent months, I argued that the peace plan proposed by Saudi Arabia could be implemented under an Obama administration if the Israelis and Palestinians both accepted difficult compromises. I told my audiences this was worth the energies of the incoming administration for, as the late Indian diplomat Vijaya Lakshmi Nehru Pandit said: �The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.�

But after Israel launched its bloody attack on Gaza, these pleas for optimism and co-operation now seem a distant memory. In the past weeks, not only have the Israeli Defence Forces murdered more than 1,000 Palestinians, but they have come close to killing the prospect of peace itself. Unless the new US administration takes forceful steps to prevent any further suffering and slaughter of Palestinians, the peace process, the US-Saudi relationship and the stability of the region are at risk.

Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, told the UN Security Council that if there was no just settlement, �we will turn our backs on you�. King Abdullah spoke for the entire Arab and Muslim world when he said at the Arab summit in Kuwait that although the Arab peace initiative was on the table, it would not remain there for long. Much of the world shares these sentiments and any Arab government that negotiated with the Israelis today would be rightly condemned by its citizens. Two of the four Arab countries that have formal ties to Israel � Qatar and Mauritania � have suspended all relations and Jordan has recalled its ambassador.

America is not innocent in this calamity. Not only has the Bush administration left a sickening legacy in the region � from the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to the humiliation and torture at Abu Ghraib � but it has also, through an arrogant attitude about the butchery in Gaza, contributed to the slaughter of innocents. If the US wants to continue playing a leadership role in the Middle East and keep its strategic alliances intact � especially its �special relationship� with Saudi Arabia � it will have to drastically revise its policies vis a vis Israel and Palestine.

The incoming US administration will be inheriting a �basket full of snakes� in the region, but there are things that can be done to help calm them down. First, President Barack Obama must address the disaster in Gaza and its causes. Inevitably, he will condemn Hamas�s firing of rockets at Israel.

When he does that, he should also condemn Israel�s atrocities against the Palestinians and support a UN resolution to that effect; forcefully condemn the Israeli actions that led to this conflict, from settlement building in the West Bank to the blockade of Gaza and the targeted killings and arbitrary arrests of Palestinians; declare America�s intention to work for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, with a security umbrella for countries that sign up and sanctions for those that do not; call for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Shab�ah Farms in Lebanon; encourage Israeli-Syrian negotiations for peace; and support a UN resolution guaranteeing Iraq�s territorial integrity.

Mr Obama should strongly promote the Abdullah peace initiative, which calls on Israel to pursue the course laid out in various international resolutions and laws: to withdraw completely from the lands occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem, returning to the lines of June 4 1967; to accept a mutually agreed just solution to the refugee problem according to the General Assembly resolution 194; and to recognise the independent state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital. In return, there would be an end to hostilities between Israel and all the Arab countries, and Israel would get full diplomatic and normal relations.

Last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran wrote a letter to King Abdullah, explicitly recognising Saudi Arabia as the leader of the Arab and Muslim worlds and calling on him to take a more confrontational role over �this obvious atrocity and killing of your own children� in Gaza. The communiqu� is significant because the de facto recognition of the kingdom�s primacy from one of its most ardent foes reveals the extent that the war has united an entire region, both Shia and Sunni. Further, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad�s call for Saudi Arabia to lead a jihad against Israel would, if pursued, create unprecedented chaos and bloodshed in the region.

So far, the kingdom has resisted these calls, but every day this restraint becomes more difficult to maintain. When Israel deliberately kills Palestinians, appropriates their lands, destroys their homes, uproots their farms and imposes an inhuman blockade on them; and as the world laments once again the suffering of the Palestinians, people of conscience from every corner of the world are clamouring for action. Eventually, the kingdom will not be able to prevent its citizens from joining the worldwide revolt against Israel. Today, every Saudi is a Gazan, and we remember well the words of our late King Faisal: �I hope you will forgive my outpouring of emotions, but when I think that our Holy Mosque in Jerusalem is being invaded and desecrated, I ask God that if I am unable to undertake Holy Jihad, then I should not live a moment more.�

Let us all pray that Mr Obama possesses the foresight, fairness, and resolve to rein in the murderous Israeli regime and open a new chapter in this most intractable of conflicts.

< Prince Turki's op-ed appeared in FT.com on Jan 22, 2009 >


About Prince Turki Al Faisal

His Royal Highness Prince Turki Al-Faisal served as the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States of America from September 13, 2005 until February 12, 2007. 

Prince Turki was appointed an Advisor in the Royal Court in 1973. From 1977 to 2001, he served as the Director General of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), the Kingdom�s main foreign intelligence service. In 2002, he was named Ambassador of to the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdulaziz. 

His Royal Highness is involved in a number of cultural and social activities. He is one of the founders of the King Faisal Foundation and is the chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. Prince Turki also serves as a member of the Boards of Trustees of the International Crisis Group and the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies. 

The King Faisal International Prizes, awarded by the King Faisal Foundation, are given to �dedicated men and women whose contributions make a positive difference.� These annual prizes are awarded in five fields of endeavor � Service to Islam, Islamic Studies, Arabic Language and Literature, Science, and Medicine � have been likened, for the Arab and Islamic worlds, as similar in stature to, and nearly as coveted as, the annual Nobel Prizes. The King Faisal International Prizes, in addition to being bestowed upon Arabs and Muslims, have also been granted to outstanding achievers from virtually all corners of the world. 

For more information: www.kff.com  ; www.saudiembassy.net  

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