Boston Globe Editorial - Saudi statesmanship

Boston Globe Editorial - Saudi statesmanship
Copyright by The Boston Globe
Published: February 9, 2007


Saudi Arabia, ruled by a one- family regime, is the ultimate status-quo power. So it is in character for the Saudi royals to suffer an anxiety attack over events in their region — and to want the fires doused before they flare into an uncontrollable conflagration.

This week, they focused, with success, on the incipient civil war between Palestinian fighters of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and the Iranian-backed Hamas. They also see a rising Iran with hegemonic ambitions pursuing nuclear weapons; a U.S. superpower blithely toppling regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that once contained the would-be hegemon; sectarian warfare in Iraq that could easily spread across borders; and a closely affiliated government in Lebanon under assault from the Shiite movement Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and the minority Alawite regime in Syria.

What are out of character are the active efforts of the Saudis to contain the ambient chaos. In the past, the Saudi princes bought safety for themselves by paying off regional thugs and relying on an American security umbrella. But the bungling of the Bush administration — by empowering the Iranians, Al Qaeda in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas among Palestinians — leaves Riyadh with little choice but to play its own cards in quest of regional stability.

So far, the Saudis are playing those cards well. A telling sign of their deftness is the agreement on a national unity government reached Thursday in Mecca between Abbas and the leaders of Hamas. The other Arab states supported the Mecca talks, as did the Americans, the Europeans and the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Careful preparations preceded the arrival in Mecca of the Palestinian leaders. Mediators already got the two sides to agree on almost all the crucial points concerning the distribution of ministerial posts and the program of a unity government. Also, high-level talks between Saudi and Iranian officials apparently smoothed the way for a Fatah-Hamas compromise that Tehran is not about to sabotage.

For all the diplomatic finesse shown by the Saudis in this matter and in their efforts to avoid a civil war in Lebanon, they have not ignored the rougher edges of statecraft. The recent Saudi-inspired decline in the price of oil, coming just as United Nations sanctions and U.S. banking restrictions on Iran were taking effect, appears to have had the desired effect on Iran's rulers. There is also reason to believe that the recent arrival of a second U.S. carrier task force in the Gulf was consonant with the Saudi strategy.

The Saudi royals, for their own survival, are acting as peacemakers for Palestinians and between Palestinians and Israel; among Lebanese; between Persians and Arabs; and among Iraqis. This is what President George W. Bush should have been doing the past six years.