Saudi’s Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (centre)
welcoming King Abdullah II of Jordan in the Red Sea resort of Jeddah, yesterday.
PARIS: US Secretary of State John Kerry sought yesterday to calm rising tensions with Saudi Arabia, which has spurned a UN Security Council seat in fury at inaction over the crisis in Syria.
Saudi Arabia rejected a coveted two-year term on the council on Friday in a rare display of anger over what it called “double standards” at the United Nations. Its stance won praise from its Gulf Arab allies and Egypt.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal hosted a lunch for Kerry at his private residence in Paris yesterday. US officials said Washington and Riyadh shared the goals of a nuclear-free Iran, an end to Syria’s civil war and a stable Egypt, but acknowledged they do not agree on how to reach them.
“We expect they’ll have a substantive, a far-ranging conversation about all of those issues, areas where they disagree, areas where perhaps we can come closer together,” a senior State Department official told reporters before the lunch. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kerry would not try to persuade the Saudis to reverse their rejection of a seat on the Security Council but would cite the advantages of being on the 15-member body, which can authorise military action, impose sanctions and set up peacekeeping operations.
“It does give you a voice even when you have frustrations,” the US official said. “It’s their decision to make.”
The council has been paralysed over the 31-month-old Syria conflict, with permanent members Russia and China repeatedly blocking measures to condemn Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, a longtime ally of Riyadh’s regional arch-rival Iran.
Saudi Arabia backs the mostly Sunni Muslim rebels fighting to overthrow Assad. The Syrian leader, whose Alawite sect is derived from Shia, has support from Iran and the armed Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah. The Syrian leader denounces his foes as Al Qaeda-linked groups backed by Sunni-ruled states.
Riyadh’s frustration with Russia and China now extends to the United States, not only over Syria, but also over Washington’s acquiescence in the fall of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and its new quest for a nuclear deal with Iran. No country has previously been elected to the council and then walked away. As an incoming member, Saudi Arabia would have taken up its seat on January 1 for a two-year term. Riyadh demanded unspecified reforms in the world’s top security institution.
Saudi anger boiled over after the United States dropped the threat of military strikes in response to a poison gas attack in Damascus in August by agreeing to give up his chemical arsenal.
Saudi Arabia was also concerned about signs of a tentative reconciliation between Washington and Tehran, something Riyadh fears may lead to a “grand bargain” on the Iranian nuclear programme that leaves it at a disadvantage.
Reuters
