Monday’s raid and shoot-out on a farm near Bureida, which left six suspected militants and two policeman dead, can leave nobody unconvinced of Saudi determination to seek out and crush a movement that has the Kingdom as its principal target. This was the third such large-scale raid since the Riyadh bombings in May. Nonetheless a number of US congressmen not only deliberately ignore this but bitterly attack Saudi Arabia. It is thanks to them that the congressional report into the events of Sept. 11 — or rather the unpublished 28 pages which allegedly deal with Saudi involvement — now threatens to seriously damage Saudi-US relations. Aided and abetted by a media that likes nothing better than a good row, opponents of the Bush administration are queuing up to smear the Kingdom.
The fact that in most cases their real target is the Bush administration and that they would readily smear any other country in similar circumstances makes no difference. The end result is that Saudi Arabia is being vilified as never before, on the basis of mere speculation and innuendo. It is worse than unfair; it is intolerable. Saudi Arabia, a firm ally of the US for longer than anyone else in the region, is being treated like an enemy. More than half-a-century of close friendship is being sacrificed on the altar of political advantage by irresponsible populists who will stop at nothing to embarrass the White House and make a name for themselves.
This is dangerous territory. There is a real possibility of relations sliding into mutual animosity and recrimination, to a level worse even than during the 1973 oil boycott. It must not be allowed to happen. To say that it is in neither country’s interests does not even begin to explain. Bad Saudi-American relations would undermine and destroy the Middle East peace process and make the entire region infinitely more unstable and dangerous. No one would gain, not Saudi Arabia, not the US, not the Palestinians, no one other than one obvious exception: Israel. Ariel Sharon would love a total breakdown in relations between the US and moderate Arab states; the pressure on him to make concessions would evaporate overnight.
Both governments are, thankfully, fully alive to the need to act quickly to prevent matters from getting even further out of hand. The speed with which President Bush acceded to Prince Saud Al-Faisal’s request for an urgent meeting in Washington to discuss matters shows that the White House is as aware as Riyadh of the need for damage limitation measures. But the White House cannot force the anti-Saudi chorus into silence. The only way forward is the release of all, or at least part, of the report’s section which supposedly deals with Saudi Arabia. That way any allegations can be refuted and the accusations answered.
