WASHINGTON Ñ The House of Representatives has been urged to work for
the disengagement of U.S.-Saudi military relations.
Analyst William Kristol said the disengagement must be a part of a U.S.
reassessment of policy toward Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Sept. 11
Islamic suicide attacks on New York and Washington. Kristol was testifying
to the House International Relations subcommittee on the Middle East and
South Asia.
"We should develop strategic alternatives to reliance on Riyad," Kristol
said. "In the military sphere, we have already begun to hedge, with
agreements and deployments to other Gulf emirates."
The reference was to the U.S. redeployment of troops and assets to such
countries as Kuwait and Qatar. Qatar is said to be the prime candidate to
serve as a U.S. military command and control center for any military
operation against Iraq.
Kristol, a leading analyst and regarded as close to the Bush
administration, told the House subcommittee on May 22 that the U.S. focus
must be on destroying the regime of President Saddam Hussein and converting
Iraq into a democracy. He said a democratic and pro-American Iraq is more
important than Saudi Arabia.
"In particular, removing the regime of Saddam Hussein and helping
construct a decent Iraqi society and economy would be a tremendous step
toward reducing Saudi leverage," Kristol said. "From a military and
strategic perspective, Iraq is more important than Saudi Arabia."
Kristol cited the heavy Saudi involvement in the Sept. 11 Islamic
suicide attacks on New York and Washington and that up to 80 percent of the
Al Qaida insurgents captured in Afghanistan and imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay
are Saudis. He said Saudi Arabia has funded Palestinian suicide bombings as
well as mosques in the United States.
"The United States should demand that the Saudis stop financing and
encouraging radical and extreme Wahabism, beginning with mosques and
charities in the United States but extending also throughout the Islamic
world, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and other trouble spots," Kristol
said. "Given its role in providing a breeding ground for anti-American
terror, the export of Wahabism is a clear and present danger to the United
States and its citizens."
Kristol called for a new U.S. policy based on an understanding of the
Saudi regime. He also urged Congress to launch an investigation into the
Saudi role in the Sept. 11 attacks as well as the kingdom's involvement in
Islamic insurgencies.
"We should not be attempting to preserve our past relationship with
Saudi Arabia but rather forging a new approach to the greater Middle East,"
Kristol said. "We have learned at great cost that Persian Gulf dictators, be
they in Teheran, Baghdad or Riyad, are shaky partners at best and cause
major problems at worst. In the future we must find an alternative Ñ either
through reform in Saudi Arabia and/or the fostering of other relationships
with truer allies Ñ to a Saudi regime that funds and foments terror."
