Saudi Arabia and the Wealth of Stability
Ghassan Charbel Al-Hayat - 04/04/06//
In addition to its Islamic standing, Saudi Arabia capitalizes on two other key wealth: oil and stability. Coupled with the adopted moderate line, they have earned a regional and international weight it has in turn harnessed to serve the causes of the Arabs and Muslims and to build bridges of cooperation and dialogue between them and the major active superpowers. Insufficient alone, oil wealth is downplayed and cannot be best used if instability prevails. Likewise, stability alone is insufficient. For the international relations do not rest on good intentions but on interests. Along with the moderate decision, these two wealth have made Saudi Arabia a reassuring factor as oil prices destabilize the world economy. For the same reason, all senior deision-making centers, from the White House to the Kremlin, passing by 10 Downing Street and the Elysée Palace, respect the standpoint of the Kingdom as a partner despite the surfacing divergent perceptions and solutions.
Part of the international stability factors in oil, economy, and politics, Saudi Arabia draws attention and enmity alike. If the 9/11 attacks have targeted the symbols of the US supremacy and success, the chosen suicide bombers have not only undermined the Saudi-US relations but also the two correlated Saudi wealth and the moderate line. Needless, in this regard, to prove the links between New York and Washington attacks and the continuous terrorist assault on the Kingdom. The attack against Abqaiq facilities has clearly targeted the two wealth, the moderate line, and with them the global economy.
In fact, oil wealth needs continuous investments to move forward with drilling and exploration and to improve production both qualitatively and quantitatively. As for the stability wealth, it requires constant attention by reinforcing, first and foremost, the mutual trust between leadership and citizens - a relation that respects the past heritage, perceives the present complications, and looks forward to the future. It also sticks to basics while promoting the capacity to change and adapt. To safeguard stability, one must first recognize that immobility, its first enemy, serves those seeking instability. Immobility undermines stability equally destroyed by the adventures overlooking reality, with its social, economic, cultural, educational, political, and religious dimensions.
By reviewing the speech King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz held yesterday before the Saudi Consultative Council, we can perceive the aspects of the current Saudi line. With respect to oil prices, the Kingdom intends to stick to its policy of moderation and to protect the world economy from shocks. "For the world welfare is an indivisible entity." To safeguard stability, it will wage a two-pronged attack: First a relentless war on terrorism and second a moderate gradual reform that abides by basic and spots, at the same time, the challenges of the present moment. "We cannot remain immobile while the world around us changes."
In this changing world, we must, if we are to preserve stability, quietly read the international balances of power and build a wide interest network with the currently active powers and others likely to play such role in the future. Strong relations are based on interests, dialogue, encounter, and not on conformity, which is initially impossible. In this regard, Saudi Arabia succeeded, despite its firm relations with the United States, in weaving strong relations with Europe. What's new in the foreign policy is the Asian window King Abdullah opened with his visit to China and India. It will be widened even further with the expected visit by Crown Prince, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, to Japan and Singapore. In this respect, studies reveal that all parties must in the future take into account the role of the emerging Asian giants.
In the troubled world after the "two attacks on Washington and New York," in the Middle East troubled as a result of the costly US "military exercises" in Iraq and other factors, the success of Saudi Arabia in preserving its stability is an experience all the peoples of the region must examine. Stability does not the least impede change, modernity, development, and can even partly compensate for the lacking natural resources. But building and protecting stability require realism and courage on the one hand and resolve and determination on the other hand. Bygone are the times of revolutions, dreams, illusions, and resounding rhetoric. The time has come now for wealth, figures, interests, and compromises.
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