Obama’s envoy had to beg for the audience: Defense Secretary Robert Gates (l.) with Saudi King Abdullah (r.) last week. (REUTERS)
The Obama administration is scrambling to repair dam aged relations with Ameri ca’s most prominent Arab ally — and it’s hard to blame the Saudis for being furious.
Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates had to beg for an audience in the Saudi king’s palace. (Gates was making the rounds in the region — but the Saudis at first declined to see him.) Then National Security Adviser Tom Donilon showed up again on Wednesday for a hastily arranged meet. According to The Washington Post, he hand-delivered a secret letter from President Obama to King Abdullah.
And yesterday the White House was busy heaping praise on the Saudis.
Behind the drama is growing Saudi anger at Obama’s Mideast policies. Specifically, Abdullah is dismayed at the speed with which Obama threw an Arab ally, Egypt’s President Mubarak, under the bus. He’s also miffed at the State Department’s criticism of his own policy in Bahrain.
The king was undergoing treatment in New York for various ailments typical of an 87-year-old this winter when events in North Africa started to spiral, threatening to engulf the entire Arab world. Even before his hasty return home to handle things himself, Abdullah was said to be seething at the US response. For him, the administration’s call for Mubarak to hand powers over to
the Tahrir Square crowd was a personal insult.
What if I’m next? is a natural fear for a leader whose country bars women from receiving drivers’ licenses and now hears Washington advocating Arab freedom. In fact, Abdullah is keeping relative calm in his country by spreading cash to would-be opponents. But there’s a bigger sticking point: Obama’s on-again, off-again support of Mideast democracy (at best) fails to distinguish between friend and foe.
When Iran erupted in 2009, our president was subdued. Yet when Egypt erupted, his top aides enthusiastically joined excitable al Jazeera reporters in marveling at freedom-loving demonstrations.
Even more acutely, Abdullah was stung at Washington’s criticism of his decision last month to send troops to help his tiny protectorate island state of Bahrain fend off an Iranian-backed Shiite uprising.
In a typical State Department briefing this week, the denunciation of Bahrain’s actions in putting down the rebellion was as blunt as the condemnation of Syria’s brutality and even more specific. This, when two months of strife in Bahrain have produced two dozen recorded deaths — while a few weeks of protest in Syria yielded several hundred fatalities, by even the most conservative estimates.
Oh, and Syria is an ally of Iran, helps anti-American insurgents in Iraq and supports Hezbollah and Hamas — while Bahrain hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet’s headquarters.
So the Saudis have reasons for being furious with Obama, not that they’d show it publicly. That’s not the way old desert Bedouins handle such things. Sources tell me Saudi intelligence has recently cooled its cooperation with US partners chasing al Qaeda. Other subtle signals include even more stinginess than normal in donations to the Palestinian Authority, which America hopes to increase.
The Saudis’ recent reduction in pumping may not be another signal: Riyadh initially increased production to offset rising oil prices after the Libya crisis erupted. But soaring gasoline prices are a reminder of how sensitive the US economy can be to the mood of a king whose family has served as America’s staunchest desert petroleum ally for nearly a century.
The Obama administration sees itself as adept at diplomacy, taking great pride in its reliance on a “realist” approach to international affairs and its ability to grasp the specifics of every situation — in other words, the exact opposite of its predecessor’s (supposed) go-it-alone, ideologically driven sledgehammer ways.
Yet, despite the reset, after months of neglect, Riyadh increasingly feels under siege. Iran has allies gaining strength in Yemen to the south and Iraq to the north and, most acutely, Bahrain and the Saudis’ own eastern regions, where Shiites are the majority — and America is no help.
We can’t democratize the whole Arab world at once, so Obama for now must keep friendships with the few old regimes that remain our allies. Who knows, if he shows more readiness to confront Iran, perhaps Obama won’t need to bow to the king again just to get on the Saudi’s good side. beavni@gmail.com