Saudi Arabia’s big absence

Jamal Khashoggi, english.alarabiya.net

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Extract:

Let us admit that we do not have an organized and effective Saudi lobbying system. What is painful is that after complaining about the Zionist lobby in the United States and its expansion and activities, even against the kingdom, we are now subjected to the effects of the Iranian lobby which emerged strong and effective due to the historical deal between Iran and the West which aims to bring the two together.

Let us carry out a survey on the activities of Saudi embassies in the main capitals of the world. How many conferences were held? When did a Saudi ambassador deliver a speech in a major research center? They even decline media requests for interviews. I only remember the activities of Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Prince Mohammad Bin Nawaf, and its permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Abdullah Mualimi. I might have overlooked a lecture or two by one of the kingdom’s ambassadors but, in general, Saudi diplomacy is weak if not absent. ...

I will close this article by quoting a prestigious writer for The Times magazine, Joe Klein, who I met when I was in Washington working with Prince Turki al Faisal who was an ambassador back then. When we were heading to the prince’s office to conduct an interview, Klein told me: “The prince’s daily press relations and public diplomatic activity done here are similar to what the Israelis were accomplishing throughout the past forty years. If you go on like this for one more decade, the American press and public opinion will change its outlook toward Saudi Arabia.” We haven’t achieved that, but Prince Turki still calls for the emergence of a new generation of young Saudi diplomats who can be proficient in public diplomacy. He believes that ambassadorial duties have changed: “When the king of the country needs to contact the head of another country, he can make a direct call through a secure telephone line; nonetheless he is unable to respond to the request of a journalist from a local newspaper in Ohio or a scholar from a university in the North of Texas. This has become the job of the ambassador,” I believe he once said. Truth to be told, he accomplished his mission during his short stay there and it is time to adopt his point of view in future diplomatic work. We hold a fair and moral cause but we do not know how to defend it and share it with the rest of the world.