A Republican U.S. senator touring the Middle East this week got access to Saudi royals that some in the State Department at times, lately, could only dream of.
That includes a three-hour session ending at 3 a.m. with Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the kingdom’s intelligence chief and overseer of its efforts in Syria. Prince Sultan held up his own flight to Russia and a session with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to meet Monday night with the visiting Tennessee senator, Robert Corker.
Sen. Corker described it as the first meeting in months between the Saudi intelligence chief and a senior U.S. official.
The overall message from Saudi leaders was two-fold, Sen. Corker, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said by phone afterward: Saudis are deeply disquieted by U.S. actions regarding Iran and Syria, but see the U.S. and the kingdom as allies still.
The direction of U.S. policy, including a sudden U.S. rapprochement with Iran late this year, “has been unsettling, but they want to continue to have a deep and strong relation with our country,” Sen. Corker said from the next stop in his tour, Oman.
The U.S. Republican has spoken publicly about his doubts about a new pact between world powers and Iran on Iran’s nuclear program, and supports economic sanctions on Iran. He and Saudi officials shared many of the same concerns, he said.
Saudi leaders expressed particular unease at “meddling by Iran” in other Gulf states, in Syria, and elsewhere, the senator said.
On U.S. outreach to Iranian officials, Saudi officials conveyed “they feel like we’re probably dealing with people who are wishing to talk to us but cannot deliver. And the folks that deliver are not the ones who are talking to us,” Corker said.
On Syria, Saudis feel U.S. follow-through on support for Western- and Saudi-backed rebels “has been very limited at best.”
Also on support to Syrian, rebels, “we’re still working closely with Saudi Arabia, but I think they probably have auxiliary efforts of their own under way to enhance support for the opposition,” Sen. Corker said.
Asked about reports in The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere about Saudis looking to expand their military support to Islamist rebels in Syria, Sen. Corker said he believed Saudis were trying now to “figure out ways of enhancing the balance on the battlefield.”
The American senator described his conversation with Prince Bandar “as very extensive, very clear, and one that certainly nothing was held back in.”
Prince Bandar, in messages conveyed through diplomats in recent months, has voiced his dismay at the Obama administration’s refusal to give more military support to rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
In October, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius related an episode in which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting Saudi Arabia, asked to meet with Prince Bandar. The Saudi official reportedly said he was on his way out of town, but Mr. Kerry could meet him at the airport, which offended Mr. Kerry’s camp.
Republican U.S. Senator Robert Corker (R) met with Prince Bandar bin Sultan (L) this week.
Saudi officials, however, often complain that top Obama administration officials, including President Barrack Obama, don’t take the hands-on, face-to-face approach to diplomacy that they see as building personal ties between leaders.
Besides Prince Bandar, the U.S. senator met with Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef, the minister of the Saudi national guard, Miteb Bin Abdullah, and others.
King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud is outside Riyadh, in his winter quarters, according to earlier reports on the kingdom’s state press agency.
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.