After Sept. 11, 2001, Saudi Arabia found itself caught in rough seas of international media. News around the world was all focused on us and we were not prepared for this amount of media attack. We, the Saudis lacked the official and private public relations. I am not talking about good public relations that make black white or vice versa. I am talking about things that can be explained. We saw Saudi Arabia pay millions of dollars to public relations companies. I knew from the start that they would do more damage than repair. Others will judge you based on what you do that will help others, not listening to what a media company would say about you. To the surprise of a lot of Saudis, it was the old American pioneers who worked in the Saudi oil fields with Saudi Aramco who did most of the successful public relations for us in the US. They showed the brighter side of Saudi Arabia. The expensive public relations companies couldn’t do it.
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In a New York Times op-ed earlier this month, entitled “Veto a State, Lose an Ally,” Prince Turki Al-Faisal, reiterated the significance of U.S. support for the upcoming Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations and blatantly warned of repercussions for a U.S. veto: “Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has.” Al-Faisal says. “Saudi leaders would be forced by domestic and regional pressures to adopt a far more independent and assertive foreign policy.”
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SUSRIS Articles
The Central Role of Saudi Arabia to U.S. Middle East Interests
This year will long be remembered and analyzed by scholars and students for the so-called “Arab Spring” sweeping the Arab world from North Africa across to the Arabian Peninsula. Simmering tensions in a dozen countries boiled over in protests and revolts toppling several regimes – Tunisia, Egypt and Libya – and pushing others to the brink. In the Persian Gulf Iran is playing an outsized role, threatening the neighborhood: sponsoring terrorism, building nuclear weapons, and dominating the scene in Iraq as America is shown the door by Baghdad. Meanwhile, 44 years of conflict and occupation in Israel-Palestine shows no signs of a solution. Indeed the threat of an American veto to a Palestinian statehood bid in the United Nations illuminates Washington’s dilemma of balancing interests versus America’s principles.