THE TELEGRAPH BLOGS – RICHARD SPENCER: President Obama meets King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia later today, and though I don’t suppose it will be picked up much it’s probably far more important than any White House meetings he will have with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinians, or even David Cameron.
There’s something so weird to Western eyes, obsessed with youth and the cut of your suit and the colour of your tie, about seeing an 86 year-old in a white robe turn up at the White House that it doesn’t compute into importance in our minds. Saudi Arabia, too, is a subject that makes both liberals and neo-cons nervous. Nervous? Apoplectic with rage, more like.
But the facts have to be faced: Saudi is America’s second-most important ally in the Middle East, and nowadays a lot easier to deal with than the number one. It is certainly a strategic asset, and King Abdullah represents a better hope for a Saudi Arabia we can grow to respect than most other leaders it has had. Abdullah may be an absolute monarch of a state where Christianity is banned, executions are public, jihadism is rife and women are, well, not given to overt displays of “Girl Power”. But he argues for a Middle East that tackles fundamentalism head-on but humanely, that is willing to accept the existence of Israel, even if it does not actively welcome it, and above all is tough on Iran. Tough on Iran? If Saudi Arabia poses a real problem to America it is that its hatred of Iran is so intense that sometimes it cannot think straight about it. Continue reading and comment >>> Richard Spencer | Tuesday, June 29, 2010
