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Analysis: Controversy Surrounding U.S. Relations With Saudi Arabia
All Things Considered: August 13, 2002
 Saudi Arabia
MARGOT ADLER, host:
It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Margot Adler.
JOHN YDSTIE, host:
And I'm John Ydstie.
The long friendship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has been sorely tested over the last year by the attacks on September 11th and, more recently, by the Bush administration's determination to take action against Iraq. Those who support a military attack to oust Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, are increasingly critical of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government has made it clear that it opposes an attack on Iraq and will not allow US forces to use Saudi territory for that purpose. NPR's Vicky O'Hara reports.
VICKY O'HARA reporting:
American commentators have inflamed Saudi Arabia with withering questions about Saudi Arabia's value as an ally. The Saudis were particularly incensed by reports of a briefing to a Pentagon advisory panel by a Rand Corporation analyst. According to The Washington Post, the analyst suggested that the US target Saudi oil fields and financial assets unless Riyadh provided more cooperation against terrorism. The advisory panel is chaired by Richard Perle, an assistant Defense secretary under President Reagan. He says no one was suggesting that the US treat Saudi Arabia as an enemy, but Perle says there are reasons to question the alliance.
Mr. RICHARD PERLE (Former Assistant Defense Secretary): I think the discovery that so many of those involved in the attacks of September 11 were of Saudi origin together with the very substantial funding of organizations around the world that have been taking an anti-Western and specifically an anti-American line has occasioned the interest in the American relationship with the Saudis.
O'HARA: But Bush administration officials publicly emphasize the strength of that relationship and the level of Saudi assistance in fighting terrorism. A State Department official says the hand-over of 16 suspected al-Qaeda members by Iran to Saudi Arabia at Riyadh's request is a significant development. The official says Saudi Arabia made it clear to Iran that any information gleaned from the suspects would be turned over to the United States.
Saudi political analyst Nuwafo Bade(ph) says people in his country think Saudi Arabia is cooperating with the US, and they're outraged, he says, by continuing American criticism of their government and religious institutions.
Mr. NUWAFO BADE (Saudi Political Analyst): The perception on the street is that the US is really out to get Saudi Arabia for various reasons. There's a conviction that Saudi Arabia is a target.
O'HARA: Gregory Gause is director of the Middle East studies program at the University of Vermont and a well-known analyst of Saudi Arabia. Gause says certain groups have turned against Saudi Arabia because of the Iraq issue and Saudi criticism of Israel.
Mr. GREGORY GAUSE (Director, Middle East Studies Program, University of Vermont): There is, I think, almost a consensus among the neoconservative right and, to some extent, the old right that Saudi Arabia isn't a good bet for the United States anymore, and that, I think, is the most important change in, if you will, the discourse in Washington about that. And it will filter up into the administration because these are the intellectual roots of many of the people who are making policy in the administration.
O'HARA: Adelal Jubair(ph), foreign policy adviser to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, asks why Saudi Arabia is being singled out for criticism when so many other countries also oppose military action against Iraq.
Mr. ADELAL JUBAIR (Foreign Policy Adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah): If there are individuals in the United States who have put Saudi Arabia, in their mind, in a hostile camp because we do not approve of the policy of going to war with Iraq at this time, I'm surprised why they don't put France and Germany in that category, or England or other countries in the Arab world, because nobody in the world has publicly come out and said, `Let's go to war with Iraq.'
O'HARA: A State Department official says that Saudi Arabia definitely has an image problem. But the Saudis, he says, are trying to improve the situation, as evidenced by enhanced cooperation in law enforcement and intelligence. The official describes the US-Saudi relationship as having matured since September 11th. And the fact of the matter, analysts say, is that the United States and Saudi Arabia are bound together by oil and regional security interests that, for the moment, outweigh all other considerations, including disagreements about Iraq. Vicky O'Hara, NPR News, Washington.
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