The indispensible website Watching America has this great translation from Portuguese from Brazil’s newspaper O Globo that gives some perspective on a new pocket of disenchantment: feelings in Saudi Arabia that President George W. Bush is interfering with their plans.
Here’s a small part of it:
Saudi Arabia is trying to bring Syria back to the negotiation table (along with Lebanon and Israel), and is seeking for some kind of understanding with Iran – a few days ago President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made an important visit to Riyadh. The Saudi influence even extends to Pakistan (old connections that have existed since the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan), and it has a huge moderating influence on the decisions of OPEC.
The biggest frustration of the Saudis, however, is named George W. Bush. Despite the old ties between the Bush family and the Saudis, King Abdullah feels that he has not been listened to on any of the vital questions of recent times – especially the invasion of Iraq. And worse: not even his warnings were taken into account. The King spoke freely and in full during a blunt speech full of acid criticism of the Americans – amongst them, that the occupation of Iraq is illegal.
This is a common refrain: there are quite a few bigwigs (in the U.S and elsewhere) who feel that George Bush marches to his own drummer and that their advice is either not taken or barely taken (James Baker: are your ears burning?). MORE:
Most curiously, in part the Israeli diplomats fully agree with the Saudis. “The Iranians should build a monument in honor of Bush, due to the gifts that Iran has received due to American policy in the Middle East,” said a senior Israeli diplomat that recently passed through São Paulo. But unlike the Saudis (who also have always seen Iran as one of the greatest threats), the Israelis see no possibility for negotiation with the Iranians. On the contrary, they speak with a certain naturalness about the moment an air campaign will be mounted to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations and defense systems (about three weeks of bombardment, according to the Israelis).
AND:
The diplomatic offensive of the Saudis has thrown the Israelis into a defensive position. The Saudis have revived a peace plan that includes participation of the European Union and Russia. But the E.U. and Russia have said that they would only participate with the Israelis in a major global peace conference on the Middle East if the Israelis first agree to serious talks with the Palestinian National Authority.
For now, and even in the face of strong American pressure, the Israeli government considers the new Palestinian unity government a mere façade for Hamas (it’s important to remember that the unity government came after a meeting in Saudi Arabia between Hamas and Fatah). But in truth, this is merely an Israeli pretext not enter, since the government doesn’t seem to know what it wants.
Read it in its entirety.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.