RIYADH: The extended five-hour meeting between US President George Bush and the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah will have a lasting impact on the overall state of relationship between the United States and its friends in the Arab world. It was crucial in many ways.
Although no immediate answers to the issues afflicting the relationship between the sole superpower and Saudi Arabia were available immediately after the meeting, yet analysts in the region realize that any outcome of the meeting could only be evident in the days and weeks ahead.
The meeting was not planned to be a media sensation by any means. It was targeted at somehow tackling the decades old difficult Palestine issue.
Many here say the result of the meeting will have to be observed in terms of noticeable changes in US perceptions and policy, in the coming days, vis-a-vis the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority. That was the major objective of Prince Abdullah to try and convince the US to even-handed in its approach.
Indeed at the end of the meeting, some positive signals were already there. Apart from the body language of the two leaders, which appeared positive and the relationship between the two leaders cosy, declarations were made in public with the US asking for complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, including Ramallah and Bethlehem.
On the other the Saudi Crown Prince assured the American leadership of no intention to use oil as a weapon against the US and its allies. This was apparently to prove the Arabs are responsible people and are ready to take into account the requirements and the priorities of the world in its decisions.
Prince Abdullah indeed travelled to the US with a difficult draft. He was expected to do some plain talking and convey the real mood of the region towards the US, because of its policies on the Palestinian-Israel issue, which is increasingly being perceived here as biased in favour of the Jewish state.
Many including Prince Abdullah knew it fairly well that the tilt towards Israel, not only hurts the Palestinians and the Arabs as a whole, rather it also imperils the long term interests of the US in the region. This is what he is believed to have plainly told his Texas audience.
The two sides were indeed very conscious of the importance of the meeting, the first between the two leaders. In fact, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah last year had decided to cancel his scheduled visit to the US because of the US policies and perceptions on the Arab-Israel issue.
Prince Abdullah had gone to the US with two specific objectives. On political front he wanted to convey to the President the seething rage on the Arab streets against Israel and the US.
The other apparent objective of Prince Abdullah’s visit was to give a fillip to the ongoing discussions between the Saudi negotiating team and the global energy giants on the 25 billion dollars Saudi gas initiative.
Crown Prince Abdullah, the Saudi delegation accompanying him and global energy luminaries are to attend a Saudi Aramco dinner on Saturday. It was during a similar invitation to the global energy leaders during Prince Abdullah’s last visit to the US, that the 25 billion dollars Saudi gas initiative was launched, offering the global energy majors a stake in the Saudi gas reserves.
The initiative which took, with great enthusiasm from both sides appear to have bogged down in recent months, for ‘political considerations’, western media has been saying in recent months.
After the Texas meeting President Bush is indeed more aware of the sensitivities of the Arab and the Muslim world on the issue. It has also once again underlined the long-lasting relationship between the two states. At least that is what one gathers in the immediate aftermath of the meeting between the two leaders in Texas.