October 28, 2001	Sunday	Shaba'an 10, 1422

RIYADH, Oct 27: Saudi Arabia is snared between sharp US criticism for allegedly not doing enough in the US-led campaign against global terrorism and a public at home that does not support the war on Afghanistan.

Riyadh, however, is confident that the spate of verbal exchanges with Washington following the Sept 11 terror attacks will not affect its “strategic relations” with the world’s sole superpower, political analysts said on Saturday.

“There is no crisis of confidence between the two countries. Yes, there are some differences that surfaced, but there were similar disputes in the past” which passed off peacefully, Saudi political analyst Dawood Shurayan told AFP.

“Saudi Arabia is a rational state. It is aware of its importance to the United States, and Washington’s importance to Riyadh. There is a mutual benefit, and the Saudis do not want the dispute to worsen,” Shurayan added.

Several US senators and leading media have strongly criticized the kingdom for failing to do enough in the war against terror, giving the impression that Washington is unhappy with Saudi Arabia.

A scathing New York Times editorial last week also condemned Saudi leaders as being soft on terrorism.

Several of the 19 presumed hijackers in the unprecedented jetliner suicide attacks in the United States which killed more than 5,000 people carried Egyptian or Saudi passports.

Those assailing Riyadh do “not represent the US administration as a whole, but only certain circles in Washington. US-Saudi strategic ties at official level have not changed,” Shurayan said.

In a rare, tough intervention, Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the effective ruler of the conservative kingdom, has hit back hard at Riyadh’s detractors, saying Western media had “a hidden hatred of Islam.”

“The fierce campaign against Saudi Arabia by Western media is a result of a hidden hatred against Islamic doctrine and the kingdom’s commitment to it,” he said in remarks published on Thursday.

US President George W. Bush phoned Prince Abdullah later in the day and told him he was “very pleased” with Riyadh’s help in the war on terrorism and that reports of bilateral tensions were “simply incorrect.”

“The president noted that he is very pleased with the kingdom’s contributions to the (anti-terror) efforts, and he said that press articles citing differences between the United States and Saudi Arabia are simply incorrect,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Riyadh told AFP Saturday that US-Saudi relations continue to move in the right direction.

“Our relations with Riyadh remain good. They are characterized by full cooperation and friendship. They will continue to be close,” he said.

Saudi Arabia, the closest US ally in the strategic Gulf region, has long relied on US support for the stability of its political system, and Washington has been heavily dependent on Saudi Arabia’s cooperation, and its oil.

But the oil-rich kingdom has certainly not been fully responsive to US demands, because it has its local and regional obligations, Shurayan said.

“Saudi Arabia has Islamic obligations, and for this reason it cannot get on board the American boat without asking where it is sailing,” said Shurayan, adding that Saudi public opinion has been adversely affected by the US criticism.

“Those who were neutral have become supporters of Afghanistan, because they saw their country and regime badly criticized,” he said.

US criticism of Riyadh has particularly irked Saudis because many of them are unhappy about the US-led bombing of Afghanistan, a fellow Muslim country that has been exhausted by decades of war against Soviet invaders and internecine fighting among former comrades in arms.

The unease has been compounded by Washington’s perceived bias for Israel even as it continues to repress the Palestinian intifada with a brutality that reached new heights.

Top Saudi officials have gone on record in the past weeks to urge the United States to tackle the roots of terrorism in the region by leaning on Israel to promote a just settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.—AFP