Saudi patience is running out By Turki al-Faisal

FINANCIAL TIMES Comment
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

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009