Perhaps one of the most important outcomes of the Jeddah Summit for Security and Development in Saudi Arabia is that a new formula of Arab-American relations was reached.
The summit which was hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the presence of US President John Biden and a number of kings and princes of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, emphasized that strategic relations should stem from common interests and not a dependency relationship as it was in the recent past.
It also proved that there are no American conditions or dictates that must be implemented. The young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman succeeded in confirming that there is a new form and era for relations with the United States based on the independence of the Saudi decision and rejection of US interfernce in internal affairs.
Relationships are governed by common interests and visions, not American conditions. The conditions that the world is experiencing now because of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the resulting negative economic impacts affected everyone to stand against American arrogance.
Saudi Arabia and its young prince, Mohammed bin Salman has found in the international developments what enables him to respond forcefully to the accusations of Biden and his Democratic Party about the young man and Saudi Arabia in many issues.
Bin Salman seized the opportunity and found in Saudi Arabia’s oil weapon that he could stand strong against Biden and force him to come to the kingdom after his patience ran out in returning Saudi Arabia to the fold of the United States.
It was noticeable to everyone how the reception was Biden in Saudi Arabia is from the Emir of the Jeddah region, which has not happened to any American president who has visited Saudi Arabia before.
It was also apparent how the American president was forced to come to Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom for fear that Russia and China would take advantage of the deterioration of relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia in particular and the rejection of many countries in the region.
The open dialogue between Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Putin regarding oil, considering Russia as one of the major producers in OPEC, and the current Saudi position regarding the use of the oil weapon in the face of American arrogance, brings to mind what his uncle, King Faisal bin Abdulaziz did.
King Faisal also used the oil weapon against American, European and Israeli support in its war against Egypt, October 1973.
Faisal was able by this decision to achieve a political victory For the Arabs beside the military victory that was achieved in the October War.
America was angry at Faisal’s decision and the price of fuel rose in the United States and factories in Europe stopped, which forced the US State Secretary at the time, Henry Kissinger, to fly to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to meet King Faisal in an attempt to dissuade him from his decision to stop oil supplies.
Kissinger began his talk, joking with King Faisal that his plane waiting at Riyadh airport needs fuel.
Faisal was firm with him, and said that he hoped to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to express his rejection of America’s support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Faisal always threatened America and the West with cutting off their oil, if they continued in their support for Israel, and that it is the cause of problems in the region.
This king had previously asked his father, King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, to cut ties with the United States after the United Nations resolution called by America and its allies to divide Palestine into two states in 1947.
At that time, Faisal, who had a religious upbringing, was in his maternal grandfather’s house is the Wahhabi imam Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, while the position of the young Prince Mohammed bin Salman regarding the relationship with the United States does not mean that he hates America or rejects the existence of Israel.
Rather, he rejects America’s policies towards the Arab region from its interference in the internal affairs of these countries and what it proposes. He wants a relationship based on equality and independence and not on the dependence that America wants for the countries of the region.
In steadfastness against American arrogance, will the circumstances of the Russian-Ukrainian war enable him, or will he impose on America a new form of relationship with Saudi Arabia, or will King Faisal and the circumstances of his assassination be the current scene? Hurt in mind now.
Hussein Abd Rabo is the Editor in Chief of Al-Borsa newspaper.
