From Ray Close. Ray Close is a former CIA analyst in
the Near East division and a member of the steering group for Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity;Ray Close is a former CIA
analyst in the Near East division and a member of the steering group
for Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity; his recent posts at
No Quarter are “Truth
in Simplicity,” “From
Rasha in Beirut,” and “U.S.
Policy in Lebanon.”
Addressed primarily to Chas Freeman, the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Chas:
Thanks. You’ll be interested in this note that I received yesterday from Nick Veliotes [former U.S. ambassador to Jordan and Egypt, and a board member of the Academy of Diplomacy].
You are both right to cite the Al Haig absurdity* as another example of past misguided attempts by the US to exploit our Arab allies in inappropriate and counterproductive ways.
During my seven years as COS in Saudi Arabia there were innumerable occasions when I was instructed to “deliver” the Saudis. …
Headquarters would dredge up earlier statements made by some Saudi leader, and tell me: “Since they have claimed in the past that they are steadfast friends of ours, how do you explain why are they are not willing to step up and be counted on this particular issue today?” A classic example was when they were caught completely by surprise by Sadat’s sudden visit to Jerusalem. The Saudis were shocked and dismayed — and registered their disapproval of Egypt’s unilateral “betrayal” of the Arab united front before Israel had met its obligations. They especially resented the fact that they had not been consulted or forewarned. When I reported this Saudi reaction to Washington, I received a cable, seething with resentment, asking me to inform the Saudis that they were expected to support this magnificently courageous gesture by Sadat, and that their failure to do so would “not be understood by their friends in Washington.”
The USG was totally incapable of understanding that Saudi Arabia might have opinions and a concept of its own national interests that diverged in the slightest from those of its “strategic partner” the United States. I’m sure every former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Egypt had many very similar experiences. It’s all about US. Never a thought about what THEY may think or feel. The embrace of Uncle Sam is not always a gesture of brotherhood, but more often of naked self-interest. That’s fine. It’s “realism”. But it does not build true friendship and lasting trust. We will pay the piper. I always feel admiration for Arab friends who stand up to our bullying once in a while.
When the Saudis, Jordanians and Egyptians issued their statement last week condemning Hizballah for provoking the crisis, I knew right away that the Bush Administration was going to exploit that action as a license to treat those three allies as co-conspirators in every action the US and Israel were jointly planning to take against Hizballah — whether or not that was what Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt thought was appropriate and in their own interests. I can imagine that our embassies in all three capitals today are being bombarded with instructions to tell the host governments what George Bush wants them to do to support the US-Israel “solution”.
Everything I heard Condi say yesterday in her press conference was confirmation that this mindset still survives in Washington. I can’t think of an appropriate word. “Arrogance” does not quite suffice.
Ray
From Nick Veliotes:
Ray:
You forgot to mention Al Haig’s very short-lived, ill-fated “strategic consensus” that he was going to forge among Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan (among others) to form a united front against the Soviet Union…after all, weren’t the Arabs upset about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? Haig sprung this publicly after meeting with Begin in Jerusalem in April, 1981..when the travelling press asked me about this (I had absolutely no forewarning) I suggested Haig must have been misunderstood..a couple of days later Sadat blew this nonsense out of the water. This was the brainchild of Paul Wolfowitz, Jim Roche, Rick Burt and Perle ..focus on the “global” threat and thus avoid the inconvenience of trying to handle the Palestinian problem.
One of the results of the Israeli invasion of 1982 was to focus George Shultz and Ronald Reagan on the need to address the Palestinian problem..hence the “Reagan Plan” of late 1982.
An analogous initiative re Hamas and Hezbollah would be to try to make a “Grand Bargain” with Iran…highly unlikely to happen !!!
Nick Veliotes
Also avaiable at No Quarter.
