Gulf | Saudi Arabia
Abdullah to test Washington's foreign policy
Wary about the direction of US policy in the region, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah will have a chance to put out feelers to president-elect Barack Obama during a visit to the United States next week.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:22 November 6, 2008
Riyadh: Wary about the direction of US policy in the region, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah will have a chance to put out feelers to president-elect Barack Obama during a visit to the United States next week.
The Saudi monarch and his delegation will attend a two-day United Nations session in New York on an "interfaith dialogue" he launched this year and then attend a summit of world leaders in Washington on the global financial crisis.
"They will do their best to sound out what the president is going to be like, but these sorts of things always take time," said Saudi political analyst Khalid Al Dakhil.
Obama's election pitch featured a promise to end US dependence on Middle East oil within 10 years, open dialogue with Iran and a draw down of the US presence in Iraq.
Those all have the potential to deeply trouble the Saudi leadership, which has relied on an oil-for-security US alliance since the 1940s that has survived regional upheavals and kept the Saud family in power against often tall odds.
Security and stability
A message of congratulation from the 85-year-old king to Obama, 47, betrayed what was on the Saudi leadership's mind.
"On this occasion we praise the strength of the firm historical bonds between the two friendly nations and hope for the peace and justice and strengthening of security and stability in the Middle East region," it said.
Saudi media showed few signs of a preference during the long presidential campaign.
Diplomats in Riyadh say the Saudi rulers felt comfortable with outgoing president George W. Bush, based on a history of close personal ties with the Bush family and the Republicans.
But Obama's slogan of "change we can believe in" could lead to a host of foreign policy shifts troubling to the rulers suspicious of anything suggesting breaks with the past.
"The portrayal of Obama as a candidate of change has disturbed them," said Kent F. Moors, an energy policy expert at Duquesne University in the United States.
Post 9/11 strategy
The government has consolidated its domestic and international position after the debacle of the September 11 attacks of 2001, where 15 of the 19 Al Qaida militants were Saudis.
The ruling elite in Saudi Arabia's traditional society has expanded its political, economic and military ties with the outside world towards Asia and Russia, diluting its historic dependence on Washington's good will.
"The potential for friction related to energy policy is probably overblown," said Greg Priddy of Eurasia Group.
Iran nuke issue
"The long-term trend is going to be a gradual decline in US oil consumption and more crude from Saudi Arabia going to Asia."
Priddy said US and Saudi interests coalesced over the hit Iran is taking from low oil prices.
Riyadh shares US concerns that Iran's nuclear energy programme is a cover for plans to develop nuclear weapons.
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