Saudi Arabia's Message to US: Do Not Tell Us How to Run Our Country

Arab News Editorial | March 9, 2011

It is perfectly legitimate for one government to tell another about its political principles. It is wholly acceptable for it to express the hope that those principles be embraced. But to go beyond that - to demand that its principles be accepted - is an outrageous interference in the other state's sovereignty and freedom. That is what the US has done. On Tuesday, the US State Department declared that Saudi Arabia had to permit protests.

"The United States supports a set of universal rights, including the right to peaceful assembly and to freedom of expression," said the State Department. "Those rights must be respected everywhere, including Saudi Arabia."

Note the use of the word "must." President Barack Obama thinks he can lay down the law to Saudi Arabia.

Washington's behavior is insulting and can only exacerbate the already strong anti-American sentiments in the Kingdom. We are not talking about anti-American views among officials. On the contrary, they are trying their hardest to keep Saudi-US relations on an even keel. We are talking about the anti-Americanism of the mass of the Saudi population which sees the US as a champion not of justice but of injustice. How else can it be when the US constantly funds Israel's oppression of Palestinians and protects it from international criticism?

In Wednesday's speech from Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the US has had its answer. Do not tell us how to run our country. We are not going to be ordered around by you or anyone. Public protests are banned in Saudi Arabia; that is the law.

Good relations between nations are built on respect, not diktat. Saudi Arabia has principles too - Islamic principles. But it does not tell the US that it "must" accept and implement them. We do not tell Americans how to run their country.

Washington's blundering approach to Saudi Arabia is part and parcel of an even great political failure. Its Middle East policies have never been more disorganized or illogical. Rather than clear-cut policy, the Obama administration has taken refuge in political correctness.

That is seen in its incomprehensible stand on Libya. On the one hand, there is strong White House rhetoric in support of the Libyan opposition, now at the mercy of Qaddafi's tanks and aircraft. On the other, there is Hilary Clinton's pronouncement two day's ago effectively telling the Libyans that they will have to fight their battles themselves; they cannot count on American help. That conclusion is reinforced with her statement that any decision for a no-fly zone will have to come from the UN. She knows that is not true. A request from the Arab League would be just as legitimate. So too would one from the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council if it were recognized as the government of Libya by the countries providing the air cover. In fact, it has made that very request. But that is ignored. Washington has opted instead for political correctness despite knowing that a UN decision is fraught with difficulties and that by the time one is agreed - if it is agreed - Qaddafi's planes may have blitzed the opposition into oblivion.

The call for protests to be permitted in Saudi Arabia is part of that same confused political correctness. No good will come from it. What is needed is decisive thinking. But it is not there.