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Foreign
Ministry to Appoint Women for First
Time: Saud
Khaled Almaeena
LONDON,
24 February 2005 - It was a cold day in
London, but the near zero degree
temperature did not chill the second day
of a Saudi-British conference, where the
two nations' chief diplomats reflected
on eight decades of warm relations
between their two peoples and charted an
equally amicable course for the future.
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Addressing the conference,
Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal announced plans to
appoint women to the Foreign Ministry for the first time
this year. He pointed out that successful political
reforms required "an evolutionary process."
Prince Saud said the two
kingdoms were uniquely positioned to cooperate and play an
effective role in dealing with major global issues.
| British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who led his
country's delegation to the conference, said the
entire British government greatly valued the
UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia. The
conference, entitled "Two Kingdoms: Facing
the Challenges Ahead," aimed at
strengthening Saudi-British ties.
In his keynote
address, Prince Saud said the role of Saudi
women was changing rapidly. "Our
educational reforms have created a new
generation of highly educated and professionally
trained Saudi women who are acquiring their
rightful position in Saudi society. I am proud
to mention here that this year we shall have
women working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
for the first time," he said.
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Our
educational reforms
have created a new
generation of highly
educated and
professionally trained
Saudi women who are
acquiring their rightful
position in Saudi society.
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Prince Saud refuted
allegations that Saudi Arabia was promoting terrorism.
"Saudi Arabia is a deeply devout society. Like other
societies, we have our share of an extremist minority.
Uninformed Western perception, however, has made the
exception in our society the rule."
He said Saudi Arabia was
one of the first victims of terrorism. "The threat of
terrorism goes beyond our own society and security. One of
the terrorists' most threatening objectives is to drive a
wedge between our cultures and societies," he pointed
out. He sought international cooperation to prevent
terrorists from establishing safe havens by abusing asylum
and migration laws.
Prince Saud emphasized the
need to end the injustice being perpetrated against the
Palestinian people as it is one of the factors fueling
international terrorism.
| "For
years we have been preaching to unheeding ears
in the West, therefore it was music to my ears
to hear what we have just heard from his
excellency Mr. Straw that this issue should be
resolved on a fair and just basis," he
added.
Referring to
political reform, the Saudi minister said the
Kingdom believed that it must be evolutionary
and must fulfill the requirements of its people.
"This month, we have commenced the process
of electing municipal council members as a step
in testing the water. The Saudi minister of
Islamic affairs has recently declared that there
is nothing in Islam that prohibits women from
participating in elections.. ..I would not be
surprised if they take part in the next round of
elections."
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Referring
to political
reform, the Saudi
minister said the
Kingdom believed
that it must be
evolutionary and
must fulfill the
requirements of
its people.
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Prince Saud highlighted
the strong relations between Saudi Arabia and Britain.
"We share certain positions of influence and we even
share certain common values with each other, combined with
a healthy diversity that can be turned into complementary
action to allow us to play more of an active role in world
events."
Saudi Arabia is the UK's
largest trading partner in the Middle East and the largest
market for British goods and services, he said. British
investments in the Kingdom account for Riyadh's second
largest foreign investment portfolio, he added.
"The UK enjoys a
position of leadership within Europe and is a repository
of intimate knowledge of the various cultures that the
empire once encompassed and that no other country shares.
There have been more explorers and scholars of the Arab
and Islamic world from the UK than from any other country
outside the Middle East and North Africa," he said.
Prince Saud said Saudi
Arabia, which has the largest proven oil reserves in the
world, would continue to play a leading role in
stabilizing the international oil market for the benefit
of both producers and consumers. "On a per capita
basis, Saudi Arabia is the leading foreign aid donor among
the community of nations."
Emphasizing the point that
political reforms around the world had gone through an
evolutionary process, he said women's suffrage came about
in the UK in the 20th century and in two stages. "The
first stage allowed only women above the age of 30 to
participate in elections," he said, quoting a
historian. "As for the US, it took a civil war and a
generation of Supreme Court decisions for the Bill of
Rights to be enforced. The statutes prohibiting
interracial marriages in certain states were only
completely removed from the books in the 1990s," he
pointed out.
In his address, Straw
described the conference as "an opportunity to
discuss how we can strengthen the partnership between the
UK and Saudi Arabia, and meet together the challenges of a
changing world. Saudi Arabia is at the political and
economic heart of the Middle East, a region which is
central to the UK's interests and to those of almost every
other country in the international community," he
said.
"As the home of
Islam's two holiest sites, Saudi Arabia has enormous
significance for the world's Muslims, including the two
million of them who live in Britain - 25,000 in my own
parliamentary constituency of Blackburn," Straw said.
"I am proud that the UK was the first mainly
Christian country to send an annual official,
government-backed delegation to the holy places, assisting
British pilgrims undertaking Haj. We are very grateful for
all the cooperation which that delegation has received
from the Saudi authorities," he said.
The British minister said
the two countries would work together to combat terrorism.
"We reject utterly the idea that this despicable
violence has any justification whatsoever in the Islamic
faith - which we know to be one of peace, tolerance and
respect."
Straw ruled out the clash
of civilizations. "Our civilizations are not
competing and conflicting, but the product of a collective
human effort to which people of many faiths and cultures
have contributed. In resisting terrorism, we proclaim our
shared attachment to civilization and to the basic human
values of respect, dialogue and freedom which the
terrorists attack," he said.
On Iraq he said: "I
welcome our shared engagement in support of the Iraqi
people as they build a stable, democratic and prosperous
country at peace with its neighbors." He stressed the
need to make sure that Iran's nuclear program is solely
for peaceful purposes.
Straw disclosed plans to
hold an international meeting in London to help the
Palestinians build the institutions which they need to
create a future Palestinian state. It will be attended by
the members of the Quartet - the US, UN, EU and Russia -
plus representatives from other nations and from the World
Bank.
"The meeting will be
an important chance for us to mobilize greater practical
support for the Palestinians as they move toward the goal
of a state of their own - a state of Palestine - for which
they have striven so long," he said.
The British minister said
democracy was a recent phenomenon in Europe. "We
cannot forget that the democracy and prosperity which our
own continent enjoys are after all, in many of its
nations, very recent phenomena. When I was a young man,
none of the eight eastern members of the European Union
could be described as a democracy; and three of its
southern members were dictatorships," he explained.
"So we do not come
with a model to impose. But we do know that the common
desire of all people is for security, prosperity and a say
in the decisions which affect their lives. And we know
that reform in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world
is in our interests too and those of the whole
international community. We therefore want to work in
partnership with Saudi Arabia and the other countries of
the region to support the processes of change which they
themselves are shaping, toward the goals which they
themselves have set," he added.
Straw described the Saudi
municipal elections as an important step in the growing
involvement of the people in political decision-making.
"I look forward to the development of this process;
and I particularly welcome the government of Saudi
Arabia's commitment to extend it to women," he said.
Reprinted with permission.
Originally published in Arab
News on February 24, 2005.
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