RIYADH, 18 September 2003 — The 12th annual Arab-US policymakers’ conference in Washington earlier this month stressed the need for an even-handed US policy on the Middle East, since current policy is having an adverse effect on United States relations with the Arab world both economically and politically.
This was the broad conclusion of the conference, sponsored by the National Council on US-Arab Relations and the US-GCC Corporate Cooperation Committee.
Some 200 delegates from the US and the Arab world participated in the conference, which discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Iraq, Iran and the Arab initiative as a just basis for peace in the Middle East.
After his return from Washington, Osama M. Al-Kurdi, a member of the Shoura Council, told Arab News the participants in the conference noted the fact that US exports, which accounted for 18 percent of the Arab trade in 1997 had declined to 13 percent in 2001.
As for Saudi Arabia, American official statistics showed that the volume of bilateral trade had plummeted by 43 percent during the first four months of 2002, reaching $1.3 billion as against $2.3 billion for the same period of 2001.
However, they recovered subsequently to post a 61 percent surge in the first four months of this year. The dramatic turnaround has been attributed to the sharp increase in oil prices in the aftermath of the Iraq war. The US is a major importer of Saudi oil and petrochemicals.
Al-Kurdi said the delegates stressed the need to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of the Saudi-sponsored Arab initiative adopted at the Arab summit in Beirut early this year.
They also called for an end to the US occupation of Iraq to enable the Iraqis to form their own government. In particular, they favored the participation of other countries in the rebuilding of Iraq and wanted a greater role for the UN in the post-war administration and reconstruction of the country.
The conference underscored the importance of mutual respect as the underlying basis for Arab-US relations, with due regard for Arab culture and traditions and said they hoped their concerns would be brought to the attention of the US government.
American delegates said political reforms in the Arab world would help to put Arab-American relations on a more even keel.
Participants from the US included, among others, Gen. John P. Abizaid, US Central Command commander-in-chief, Gen. Anthony Zinni, former US Central Command commander-in-chief and Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Mideast peace envoy, Chas Freeman, Middle East Policy Council president, and John Duke Anthony of the National Council on US-Arab Relations.
Those from Saudi Arabia included besides Al-Kurdi, Abdulmohsen Al-Akkas, senior executive of Saudi Research and Marketing Group and Omar Bahaliwa, assistant secretary for international relations at the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
