RIYADH,
Saudi Arabia
— The Saudi royal family prizes stability as much as the oil that
secures its wealth, but political upheaval across the Middle East has
shaken the kingdom's sense of balance, forcing it to press for radical
change in
Syria and confront a bid by longtime nemesis
Iran to wield greater influence.
The decades-old rivalry between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and
Shiite-controlled Iran for prominence in the region is one of the
volatile subplots embedded in the
"Arab Spring."This
was evident Thursday when Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf
countries, which have complained of Iranian manipulation of the
Shiite-majority government in
Iraq, sent lower-level delegations to the Arab League summit in Baghdad.
Intrigue between Riyadh and
Tehran has sharpened as Iran has accelerated its
nuclear program.
The kingdom blames Tehran for training Islamic militants and for
stirring sectarianism in eastern Saudi Arabia and in neighboring
Yemen and
Bahrain.
The bloodshed in Syria has enraged the monarchy, but also provided a
moral cover as it attempts to undercut Iran by weakening its strategic
proxy, Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Iran's meddling "is very dangerous," Saudi Foreign Minister
Prince Saud al Faisal told The Times.
In a wide-ranging interview, Saud listed other highly charged issues, including
Israel'sthreat
to attack Iran's nuclear program. His comments about the region's
precipitous change, including the ouster of longtime Saudi allies such
as deposed Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak, illustrate how cautiously Saudi Arabia's old guard is navigating this perilous new world.
Expressing Saudi fears that the Arab uprisings could ignite new unrest
in the region, and even within the kingdom, the prince reflected on
epoch-changing rebellions. "Revolutions have brought good things, and
some revolutions have brought bad things," he said. "The French
Revolution was followed by a reign of terror."
The Obama
administration embraced the Arab revolts last year, a policy that
strained relations with Riyadh. The strategic U.S.-Saudi partnership, as
both sides like to call it, has improved somewhat since. Both countries
share similar concerns about Iran and Syria, and seek to calm oil
markets to prevent further pressure on the global economy.
Led
by a king in his late 80s and a cadre of top princes not much younger,
the House of Saud presides over a nation anxious about succession and a
young generation craving greater freedom from the kingdom's rigid form
of Islam and an oppressive Interior Ministry often cited for human
rights abuses.
Saudi Arabia's decisions to send troops to help
crush a Shiite rebellion in Bahrain and to grant refuge last year to
deposed Tunisian President
Zine el Abidine ben Ali
are testaments to its resistance to shifting regional dynamics. The
message was stark: The kingdom stands by its allies — no matter how
corrupt — and will not tolerate antigovernment protest.
But
some leaders, most notably Assad, whose violent repression of his people
has jarred the world, are expendable to Saudi Arabia and other Persian
Gulf countries in their larger strategic struggle against Iran. Removing
the Syrian president and his Shiite-offshoot Alawite regime could bring
Syria's majority Sunnis to power, and limit Iran's reach in
Lebanon and the
Gaza Strip, where it backs the militant group Hamas.
Prince Saud has urged the international community to arm Syria's
rebels, but he denied reports that the kingdom was secretly sending
weapons through Jordan. "You must at least allow those who are being
killed to protect themselves," he said. "Perhaps that will change the
mind of the government if they see that."
He was animated in criticizing world powers, especially
Russia and
China,
for not stopping Assad's army from its pummeling of Homs and other
Syrian cities. Moscow and Beijing, which increasingly needs Saudi oil to
fuel its economic growth, blocked attempts by the
United Nations to impose harsher sanctions on Damascus.
"We don't understand what objectives they [Russia and China] are trying
to pursue," Saud said. "If it is stability they're looking for,
certainly stability cannot be achieved by such a policy of bloodletting.
If it's protecting their interests, they are losing public opinion in
the region very quickly."
On Tuesday, the Assad regime agreed to a cease-fire negotiated by U.N. envoy
Kofi Annan.
But the government has broken past pledges, and fighting continued in
the conflict, which the United Nations says has claimed more than 9,000
lives. The fate of Syria is central to the tension between Riyadh and
Tehran, which has framed much of the politics in the region since Iran's
1979 revolution.
Saudi Arabia is frustrated over how to
counter Iran's maneuverings, which include expanding its influence with
Iraq's Shiite-dominated government, training Islamic militants in
Lebanon and arming Houthi rebels in Yemen. The kingdom's army battled
the rebels in 2009 along the Saudi-Yemen border. Riyadh also alleges
that Tehran is aiding an Al Qaeda branch in Yemen for attacks on oil
targets inside the kingdom.
Saud said, however, that Iran's
alliances with countries such as Iraq and Syria were not stronger than
the allegiances those nations have to the Arab world.
"Syria
and Iraq are Arab countries, and whatever change happens [they] will be
coming back to the Arab fold and not going toward Iran," he said.
The mistrust has been exacerbated by Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iran
says its nuclear program is for civilian proposes, but the U.S. believes
the goal is to produce a bomb. The fear is that Tehran's nuclear
aspirations will spur Arab countries to follow suit to protect
themselves. Concern for its security and efforts to counter Iran partly
influenced Saudi Arabia's decision to buy $60 billion worth of fighter
aircraft, helicopters and other equipment from the U.S. in 2010.
Deep economic sanctions imposed on Iran have led to threats by Tehran
to close the Strait of Hormuz, which would affect shipping lanes for all
gulf countries. The Saudis have attempted to allay fears, saying that
there is enough oil on the market and that it would boost output if
necessary.
Saudi Arabia and other gulf states are more alarmed
by the specter of an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear installations.
Such an attack would probably shift international condemnation against
Iran to
Israel,
spur terrorism against Jerusalem and possibly lead to a wider regional
war. Saud said that Israel's rhetoric is reckless and that its security
is not in jeopardy.
"Who is threatening Israel with atomic
bombs? Which Arab countries are arrayed on the border of Israel? Is
there a threat to Israel's security?" he asked. An Israeli attack on
Iran without considering the wider consequences "would be an act of
extreme uncaring for the region and its stability," he said.
Saud said his kingdom has been closely following the global debate over Washington's perceived loss of influence.
"People are saying that America is losing its power because it's not
able to influence events in other countries," he said. "What you hear in
the debate is that because America is not using its military force to
solve things it's losing power."
He said, however, that the
White House was turning "to the power of ideas," which is "more important that the power of artillery."
But even that, he suggested, can be inconsistent, especially when it
comes to U.S. support of Israel and lack of progress on a Palestinian
state. Saud said the Arab world was encouraged by
President Obama's speech to Muslims in Cairo in 2009, which struck a more conciliatory note than policies of theGeorge W. Bush administration.
"We thought, thank God, America is coming back," he said. "But I think his program was abrogated before it was fulfilled."
jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com
