Saudi Arabia Again Acts Against Its Own Best Interests

Sometimes - actually, most of the time - it's hard to understand the logic behind Arab actions. Driven by hatred, they keep doing the opposite of what's really in their own best interests.

We're used to that when it comes to Israel. Had the Arabs accepted the United Nations Partition Plan, a plan which allotted nearly 90 percent of Palestine to them, they would have avoided the last six decades of the war they have continued to wage against Israel. There would have been no Palestinian Arab refugees. There would not be millions of descendants of those refugees living in squalor to this day.

Had they accepted Israel at any time during the last six decades, they would have been able to cut their self-inflicted losses and begun to live normal existences.

The following press release from the Saudi News Agency shows the Saudis extending that self-destructive behavior to the problem of Iran.

While Israel is the number one target of the Iranian nuclear program, the bottom line is that the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran would be a disaster for Saudi Arabia as well as Egypt, Jordan and any other so-called "moderate" Arab states. It could very well spell the end of the Saudi dynasty.

Logically, Saudi Arabia and those other "moderate" Arab states should be doing everything they can to keep Saudi Arabia from acquiring nuclear weapons. Instead, they are publicly pressing the United States and Israel to avoid confronting Iran, effectively abetting the Iranian mullahs in their quest to rule the Middle East and, ultimately, the world.

What fools those Saudis be.

Here's the press release, along with some added commentary.

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Saudi king urges US to press Israel for ME peace deal

Saudi Press Agency - 22 March, 2008

King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and US Vice President Dick Cheney held talks at the Monarch's Al-Janadriya farm on the outskirts of the capital, Friday.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia yesterday urged US Vice President Dick Cheney to pressure Israel to seal a peace deal with the Palestinians before US President George W Bush leaves office in January 2009, official Saudi sources said. Cheney, on a 10-day regional tour, arrived yesterday in Saudi Arabia where he met Abdullah at the king's Al Janadriya horse farm near Riyadh. The sources said Saudi Arabia is not happy with the "slow" pace of US efforts to push the Middle East peace process by putting pressure on Israel to reach a peace agreement and end the building of settlements and excavations around Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

[It is the Arab refusal to negotiate seriously, not to mention its continued terror war, that has caused the "slow" pace of peace efforts. Until the Palestinian Arabs take the very first step they publicly committed to with the Osle Accords back in 1993 - the abandonment of terror - no negotiations can possibly succeed. If the Saudis really want to further peace, they should be pressuring the two Palestinian Authorities, not Israel.

The repetition of the tired complaints about Jews living in their homeland also just drive more spikes into the prospects for peace. One sign that the Arabs are finally coming to terms with the existence of Israel will be when they start publicly recognizing that Jews have as much right to live in all parts of Eretz Yisrael as do Arabs.]

King Abdullah and Cheney also discussed Iran's nuclear programme and its growing regional influence. The king confirmed his opposition to any US military strike or threat their of against Iran, the sources said. Saudi Arabia, along with other Gulf Arab countries, sees negotiations as the best way to ease tension between the US and Iran.

[Of course, without the threat of force, negotiations will do absolutely nothing other than allow the Iranians to acquire nuclear weapons.]

Abdullah also told Cheney that the Middle East should be free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. The Saudis say any nuclear non-proliferation efforts should include Israel, which many in the Arab world suspect has a secret nuclear programme. The situation in Iraq was also discussed.

[Like the United States, Great Britain and France, Israel is not threatening to use nuclear weapons. In other words, if Israel has nuclear weapons, those weapons are not a threat. There is no comparison between that and a rogue nation like Iran, which threatens others with destruction.]

The two also chatted about the previous stops on the vice president's nine-day Middle East swing - the surprise visits to Iraq and Afghanistan and the subsequent stay in Oman - before beginning a private meeting. Cheney will also visit Israel, the West Bank, and Turkey before returning to Washington.

King Abdullah decorated Dick Cheney with the green and gold King Abdul Aziz sash, the highest award for a vice president. "Mister vice president, we've been friends a long time," the King said. "How was your trip?" the Monarch asked. "Very good," said Cheney.

Present at the talks were Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of Riyadh; Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Foreign Minister; Prince Muqrin Bin Abdul Aziz, Chief of General Intelligence; Ali Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and Adel Bin Ahmad Al-Jubair, the Kingdom's Ambassador to Washington.

Ford Freakier, the US Ambassador to the Kingdom; David Edengton, Assistant to Vice President and Johan Hana Assistant Deputy Chief for National Security also attended the talks.

Upon arrival, Cheney was given a traditional welcome by Prince Saud at Riyadh airport after his arrival from Oman.

Saudi forces provided an honor guard.