Saudi Arabia's Role in the Middle East

In the days before President Bush’s official visit to Saudi Arabia, the Center for National Policy brought together two leading experts on the politics and policy of the desert kingdom to discuss the future of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.  

Thomas Lippman, who spent thirty years at the Washington Post as an editor and correspondent covering the Middle East, stated that while the meeting between President Bush and King Abdullah was likely to be polite, there were significant unresolved tensions that are directly influencing the U.S.-Saudi relationship.  The Saudis are frustrated by inconsistent U.S. policy in the region, specifically the lack of follow through on the Annapolis conference and variable levels of confrontation with Iran. The United States is unhappy with Saudi defacto recognition of Hamas and $100 barrel oil.

Simon Henderson, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said that there are three main aspects to Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy. Saudi Arabia views itself as a leader in the Islamic world, the Arab world and the oil-exporting world. On all these fronts, the Saudis find themselves in competitive environments. In the Islamic world the Saudis are in competition with Iran for influence from Bahrain to Beirut. In the Arab world, the Saudis have a hard time setting a common agenda for the Palestinians let alone the whole Arab world. They are also losing their ability to control fluctuations in the price of oil. Henderson characterized the Saudis as being in a state of anxiety over these issues as well as over the state of neighboring Iraq.

The U.S.-Saudi relationship remains important to the United States as we are concerned about the stability of the region, the uninterrupted flow of oil and curbing the rise of Al Qaeda. Remembering Saudi strategic imperatives can help the United States gain more cooperation in meeting all of our objectives. Paramount among these is to restore a measure of predictability to U.S. policy in the Middle East.