The Week That May Change History
06 October 2016
By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
The special relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia that spans
more than seventy years now faces a difficult test after a draft bill allowing
the families of those killed in the September 11 attacks to sue the Saudi
Arabian government and its institutions was approved by Congress. The US
President Barack Obama was supposed to inform Congress of his rejection of the
new legislation by using his right of veto. However, both the Senate and the
House of Representatives announced that they will be extending the duration of
the session, just in case senators need to vote against the veto and insist on
the new law.
Unless 34 out of a total of 100 senators are convinced of the dangerousness of
the legislation and support the president, it will become the worst week in
the history of the two countries, and will also damage the concept of the
sovereignty of nations and relations between nations.
In the past few days, a large number of senior politicians have protested
against Congress' decision, and they include former presidents of the United
States. The European Union also appealed to Congress not to adopt it and a
number of world leaders opposed it. Two days ago, The New York Times said that
although President Barack Obama is not on good terms with Saudi Arabia, he
opposes the decision for fear of its consequences on sovereignty, and the
damage that it would do to world order.
Those who worked on the prosecution project, whether they are the lawyers or
politicians who drafted the law and rallied the necessary support for it,
spent a lot of time on it and won't change their minds about it easily. They
played on emotions more than relying on legality and set the dates of the vote
in both chambers of the Congress before the elections so that they can
blackmail the candidates in their states and regions on both an emotional and
political level. During the elections, they will remind representatives that
they can either stand ''with Saudi Arabia or the American victims and their
families!''
Are there 34 senators in the Senate who are ready to be guided by reason and
to support President Obama? Or will this year end with not only a nuclear
agreement with Iran but also a bill punishing Saudi Arabia? It's a strange
piece of legislation because the kingdom has actually been Washington's first
partner in the war on terror since 2001, after the September 11 terrorist
attacks.
This will be a crucial week that proves that those who have sought to sabotage
the relationship between the two governments for decades have succeeded to a
large extent, after having tried various times in the past and failing. In the
seventies, there were calls to punish Saudi Arabia because of the oil embargo
and then because the price of oil rose, but successive US governments refused.
Then calls were made to hold Saudi accountable for its support of the PLO, but
they were not successful.
It is ironic that in the late nineties there was a campaign of criticism from
different organisations because Saudi Arabia prosecuted and arrested extremist
groups after the bombings in Riyadh and their formation of various
organisations and associations that were accused of being linked to Al-Qaeda
in its infancy. Critical articles and reports appeared in the British and
American press saying that the stoning of extremists was against their human
rights.
After the September 11 attacks and the United States' announcement that it was
waging a war on terror, there has been a significant improvement in the
American vision and understanding of the Saudi position. As a result, there
has been an increase in the level of security cooperation and for the first
time, American security services such as the FBI were involved in this
cooperation. For nearly ten years, the security relationship between the two
countries was stronger than the political one.
This long history which includes the discovery of oil, a strong political
alliance, fighting common wars and confronting terrorism in our era is facing
a great challenge that threatens to demolish it.
Al Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya television. He is also the
former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly
magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers of
Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is a US post-graduate degree in mass
communications. He has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He is
currently based in Dubai.
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EsinIslam.Com
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