/ 19 June 2004

US-Saudi relations rocked by terrorism

The beheading of US hostage Paul Johnson highlights once again the tense relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and revives a sometimes bitter debate whether the Saudis are doing enough to rein in violent Islamic factions.

Despite their long relationship, ties between Washington and Saudi Arabia have been tense since it became known that 15 of the 19 hijackers of the planes used in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States were Saudis.

And terror mastermind Osama bin Laden himself is the son of one of the kingdom’s most powerful and wealthiest families.

President George Bush described Johnson’s slaying on Friday as ”barbaric,” and vowed that the United States ”will not be intimidated by these kinds of extremist thugs.” But neither he nor vice-president Dick Cheney mentioned Saudi Arabia.

Secretary of State Colin Powell thanked Riyadh for its efforts to find Johnson, and said that he was confident the death ”will cause our Saudi colleagues to redouble our efforts to go after terrorists wherever they are.”

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who has been critical of Riyadh and its ties to Bush, denounced the beheading as ”a grotesque act” — and had stern words for the Saudis.

”It is essential that we have the full cooperation of the Saudi government in tracking down these terrorists and destroying al-Qaeda. This must be our nation’s highest priority,” Kerry said in a statement.

Frank Lautenberg, a Democratic senator from the eastern state of New Jersey, where Johnson was born and grew up, was also critical.

”The Saudi Arabian government has shown too much patience for these terrorist cells and the ideologies of hate they preach,” he said.

Washington should no longer tolerate Saudi inaction: ”All further relations with Saudi Arabia must be entirely contingent on the kingdom’s progress cracking down, reining in and snuffing out its terrorist problem,” he said.

Despite closer anti-terrorism cooperation, relations between the two countries remain tense.

Riyadh is unhappy with US-supported democratic reform policies in the Middle East, while pressure is increasing on the Bush administration to demand stricter measures to clampdown on Saudi financing of terrorism and to denounce the absence of religious freedom in the kingdom.

Steven Cook, a specialist at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations think tank, believes that Johnson’s death will tighten relations between Washington and Riyadh. ”The relations will get stronger because now they are facing a common threat,” he said.

As terrorist attacks increase in the kingdom, the kind of ”acrimony and recrimination between the two governments has taken the back seat to cooperation in fighting terrorism,” he predicted.

Washington government policy experts ”recognise that at this moment punishing Saudi Arabia would be more conterproductive than actually cooperating with the Saudis because we face a common enemy,” he added.

Daniel Byman, an expert with the Saban Centre at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, believes the relationship between the two governments will not be hurt by Johnson’s slaying.

”In my opinion it may even become stronger,” he said.

”This is a way of showing they are facing a common threat,” he said. Johnson’s death is ”a humiliation for the Saudi government, and it’s a reason for them to increase cooperation with the United States,” he said. – Sapa-AFP