DAMMAM, 13 January 2003 — Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd, governor of the Eastern Province, met with visiting members of the Saudi-American Exchange at his office in Dammam yesterday.
The Saudi-American Exchange is a program jointly organized by Prince Faisal ibn Fahd ibn Abdullah and Dr. J. Gregory Payne, a professor at Emerson College in Boston.
The main goal of the Saudi American Exchange is to promote understanding through better communication.
This delegation of visitors, comprising of American students and members of the American media, have been in the Kingdom for the past 10 days gaining a first-hand insight into life here.
The 22 Americans arrived in Saudi Arabia to meet with representatives of the government, Saudi culture and the Arab media as well as prominent citizens.
The group arrived in Dammam from Riyadh on Friday and will remain in the Kingdom as guests of Prince Faisal at the Sunset Beach Resort in Dammam.
Neil Smith of Baltimore, Maryland, one of the guests who is a Masters candidate of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University, told Arab News that Prince Muhammad was "very distinguished and approachable".
"He has expressed a genuine desire to enhance the relationship between the two countries and bring back what was lost in the aftermath of Sept. 11. I have no doubt at all that he is committed to and appreciate the seriousness and importance of the relationship between our two countries."
Bob Semonian, of Boston, Massachusetts, editor of The Improper Bostonian and a delegate at the last six Republican National Conventions, asked the governor if Iraq was as big a threat to Saudi Arabia and the world as Western media have reported.
"There is a great deal of hype in the media, and Iraq’s capabilities are greatly exaggerated," Prince Muhammad told him.
Semonian has been the state chairman of many presidential campaigns including those of Ronald Reagan, Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanan.
Marco Servetti, assistant to organizer Dr. Payne and a graduate in International and European Politics, said that the tone of the conversation was very positive.
"There appears to be a true intention to overcome the hardships between the two countries caused by Sept. 11. The European Union should become more involved," he added.
Ibrahim Khashoggi, a management undergraduate at King Fahd University who attended the meeting, said: "People like these visitors are the ones who will bridge the cultural gap. We can’t leave it to governments alone."
Kahlil Byrd, a graduate student of the Kennedy School at Harvard University, told Arab News that the way that the Bush administration has turned its back on the Arabs is hurting all people.
"No other country in the region has played as important a role as Saudi Arabia in promoting peace and averting war," he said.
"People in the United States have a very distorted idea of what Saudi Arabia is and who the Saudi people are. There is so much beauty and peace in this society that I will be telling everyone about when I return home to the US," Byrd said.
"But I am just worried that people are so set on their preconceived opinions that they will not believe what I’ll tell them."
