US, Saudi still far apart on regional issues
Saudi Arabia and the United States have competing visions for the future of the Middle East, with Saudi regional policy deeply rooted in its own domestic concerns.
As US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns explained in his Feb. 19 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, combating extremism and containing its expansion in countries such as Syria and Yemen remain common goals shared by Washington and Riyadh. According to Burns, the United States, in partnership with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, was trying to manage the transitional process taking place in the Arab world in a manner that would lead to the establishment of responsible, responsive and moderate governments.
Moreover, the United States sought to guarantee that the comprehensive political process in Egypt be welcoming to all, including the Muslim Brotherhood, and offer support to the Iraqi government by embracing Shiite political forces in order to distance them from Iran. This comes in addition to backing the Bahraini national dialogue in a manner conducive to achieving results that would lead to some measure of sustained stability.
But the dilemma lies in the fact that Riyadh views the changes taking place around it, and the American vision of the future, as threatening to its interests — or more precisely, the interests of Saudi political elites. As a result, any regional partnership with Washington in this regard would be very difficult to accept. It would entail that Washington, Riyadh or both review their stance vis-à-vis past and present events, or — a more likely scenario — decide to deal with contentious regional issues in a piecemeal manner.
To start with, Riyadh disagrees with Washington’s characterization of regional events. While the latter tends to view events as a manifestation of popular aspirations of freedom and dignity, Riyadh describes them as an amalgam of chaos and strife, devoid of any real substance.
