FT.com / Middle East - Saudi prince urges US to be even-handed
Interesting. The former head of Saudi Intelligence. The former Ambassador to US during Bush’s Presidency is informing the US that their “Special Relationship” could be changed.
Talk about some back bone. Or the dog biting the master’s hand. Which ever you prefer.
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whoelse are these baghairat gonna sell there oil to?
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The other 190 countries in the world. Seriously is world affairs now the section of this website?
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too little, too late, by someone too unimportant. it seems calculated to give them a backdoor out in case the master is offended.. he wasnt speaking for the government
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Good to know that Turki is no longer important considering he was the Ambassador to the US roughly 1 month ago. No way in the world he still keeps in touch with his buddies like US senators, former secretaries of state and of course important people in the Obama camp. No he would just forget them all. No more drinks at fancy parties and of course they don't even call each other up to discuss politics. Nah that would never happen.
Rather he so worthless that the FT requested in an interview with him and almost all international news media ran the article with his comments.
No all of them are wrong but Lockjaw is right. He is totally unimportant.
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Musharraf was president till recently, once he left his input on the india-pakistan faceoff didnt have the same impact.
if it is saudi govt's position, it should come from someone with a current post.
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Of course it didn't have the same impact. How silly of us thinking a former President and Military General doesn't get intouch with his buddies over a few drinks, and more importantly how stupid of the media to give Musharraf - an unimportant person now - some air time and point out his view.
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oh no doubt the media will give coverage, and no doubt they exchange much intimate thoughts over drinks, although im not sure if this sort of stuff makes it there.
does it go beyond that?
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Oh no. Your friend giving you advice never influences one's judgement. Again I completely agree with you. Turki is not important any longer. The fact that he was the Saudi Ambassador the US has absolutely no impact on US - Saudi relations and his opinion as you said is worthless.
Why can't we be as insightful as you?
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and what evidence do you have that Turki did give this advice to his friends? are you present at those drinking parties? or did you mean the article to be advice given to a friend (i suppose telephones are too complicated?)
op-ed pieces by former ambassadors with no official government capacity dont count for 'spine'. he may be the most important person in your life for all i care, but any writing he does, any statement he makes, doesnt indicate any bravery by the saudi govt unless he is speaking for the saudi govt.
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There is just no pleasing you. I am agreeing with you here. The fact that he was one of the most important figures in Saudi politics and relations with the US means absolutely nothing now. He is unimportant as you said. And as a former top ranking Ambassador and part of the family, that doesn't mean he speaks for the government. Oh no sir. Not at all.
I really admire you brilliant insight into politics.
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sarcasm doesnt substitute for substance. how about some positive statements from you then. does he speak for the government? if so, in what capacity.
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Sarcasm? You wound me good Sir. I was merely pointing out that his past life and experience in no way have an impact on the current situation and that as you said he is not important at all. One should not even give this information a second thought. The Financial Times? Ha. What do they know. We got Lockjaw here to give us the true insight to the story.
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i didnt mean to offend you when i said he was unimportant. clearly you have strong feelings for him, but people have importance in different capacities. he is important to you as a person, he isnt important currently as someone who can speak for the saudi government. till he, or someone else, makes that the official saudi position, it doesnt amount to much.
saudis are not capable of disagreeing with the US in any way that'd make a difference.
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Saudi patience is running out :
By Turki al-Faisal
Published: January 22 2009 20:15 | Last updated: January 22 2009 20:15
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 communiqué 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 is chairman, King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies, Riyadh. He has been director of Saudi intelligence, ambassador to the UK and Ireland and ambassador to the US
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/65b122b6-e8c0-11dd-a4d0-0000779fd2ac.html
The day American 'help' is taken away from Saudis, their monarchy will be burned at stake by the Islamists.
Then in few years, Saudi Arabia will revert to the situation like Nigeria. Lot of oil and still lot of poverty all thanks to clan and tribal warfare.
Or worse, Saudi tribes could revert to a not too distant past when the sole source of their income was to loot the haj caravans.
Prince Turkey is a nice guy BTW.
The problem with SA plan is that it is good 30 years late in coming.
Had SA proposed, and Palestinians accepted such a plan in 1968, things would have been different.
But no, Soviet communists were giving money to Arafat rah, so why would he have accepted such a pathetic offer.
it is time that Saudis (or others) realize, to look at the current calendar before putting a plan forward.
A plan in 2009 should be based on the maps of 2005-2008 period.
Similarly a plan in 2020 should be based on the maps of 2015-2019.
Otherwise the listener may not say something openly, but in private they will laugh while commenting "what a doofus" plan.
Of course it didn't have the same impact. How silly of us thinking a former President and Military General doesn't get intouch with his buddies over a few drinks, and more importantly how stupid of the media to give Musharraf - an unimportant person now - some air time and point out his view.
Hey I never knew that these people drink.
I am surprised that not even a single person who is in power currently has seconded these statements. With all the drinking, these guys might have forgotten what they were discussing.
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Of course. You would know all about it, consider you are part of the very epicentre of power in world politics.
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^^
I am not in the epicenter, but you are quite in the know. You know the subject of discussion in every party that happens..Good for you. Please let me know when there is a tangible change in the policy of Saudi towards US.