Even before the outbreak of violence in Gaza in October, which derailed the latest diplomatic efforts to normalize relations with Israel, the Kingdom's long history of involvement with the Palestinian cause complicated ambitions to sell the Abraham Accords to a domestic audience. Since the royal family's claim to political legitimacy is tied to their religious credentials and, specifically, their custodianship of the two Holy Places (Makkah and Madinah), their service is not just to Saudi society - they are both leaders and servants of the global Muslim "ummah" (nation). Through the Kingdom's identification as a Muslim state, this universal aspect of the country's Islamic identity means that the Palestinian cause, and the status of Jerusalem, in particular, is an important component of national identity.
Faysal, taking the throne after his brother Saud, was determined, as a pious Muslim, to protect the sacred sites of Islam. Infuriated by the loss of East Jerusalem by Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Faysal tried to impress upon the Americans that their continued support for Israel would have negative consequences; later, the 1973 regional conflict, and US involvement, led to Faysal's embargo on the export of oil to the West. The "Oil Shock", and its cataclysmic effects, elevated the Kingdom from a poor backwater to the leading state in the region and a global economic player. From then on, the Palestinian cause became the main priority of Saudi diplomacy.
The second son of the founder Ibn Saud, Faysal had religious credentials second to none. His mother was a member of the Al al-Shaykh family, a direct descendant of the imam Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, and the future king grew up in his maternal grandfather's house, where he had a religious upbringing. By the age of 12 he had traveled extensively across Europe, including trips to Britain and France where he acted as his father's unofficial envoy at the end of World War I. In March 1939 Faysal attended the London Conference (St. James Palace Conference) which attempted to negotiate an agreement between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, though it ended in failure, unable to resolve the matter of Jewish immigration. During the war, he met with President Roosevelt in Washington.
In 1947, Faysal was in New York for the UN vote on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Kingdom was strongly opposed to the proposal, but Faysal was privately assured by General Marshall, one of President Truman's top aides, that the US would vote against it. In the end, however, the Americans supported the partition, and Faysal, outraged, took it as a personal affront. He called on his father, the king, to break relations with the US, but he was overruled.
After succeeding his brother Saud, who was deposed in 1964, Faysal was on cordial, if somewhat frosty, terms with Washington. He continued to press the Americans on the issue of Palestinian statehood, assuring them that while "all of the Arab states desire the establishment of permanent peace throughout the region based upon right and justice", he was "likewise certain that there will be no final solution so long as Israel does not withdraw from all of the occupied territories, and so long as the Palestinian people are not given the right to return to their land and (enjoy) the right of self determination." In a letter to President Ford, he reiterated that it "remains our firm policy that no settlement is possible without taking into account the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people."
Still, correspondence from the time reveals that the Americans looked at the relationship mainly through the prism of regional Arab fundamentalism: Faysal aimed to prevent "at any cost" the radicalization of the Arab world, and favored a "settlement with Israel as the surest means of immunizing the Arabian peninsula against radical contamination", according to diplomatic cables.
|
King Salman's Jordan Visit in Pictures
In this album, Jordanian honor guards parade in a ceremony honoring King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, March 28, 2017. During the ceremony, Jordan's King Abdal |
|
Universities under probe for financial discrepancies
Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH mdash; The Ministry of Education has uncovered financial discrepancies at some universities reaching millions of riyals and has formed a specialized committee to investigate the possible violations, Al-Watan daily reported. A source at the ministry reported that undocumented and unauth |
|
Water supplied to Najran villages polluted, residents claim
nbsp; Saudi Gazette report nbsp; NAJRAN mdash; Residents of villages and small towns in Najran Province claim their water supplies are polluted and requested the Najran General Directorate of Water to fulfill its promise of providing potable water to the region, Al-Watan daily reported. |
|
The Qur'anic Vision of Muhammad bin Salman: Conviction or Politics?
Behind the spate of reforms introduced by the crown prince is an influential group of Islamic scholars holding that only the Qur'an is the source of divine law, while much of the literature of 'hadith' is suspect. So far, the younger generation has embraced his reforms, but the change in outlook represents a profound rift with the Kingdom's past. |
|
Spectacle and Ceremony: Honoring Tradition or Managing Expectation?
Bursting with pomp and circumstance, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, and later the coronation of her heir, King Charles III, were monumental productions involving the full apparatus of state, broadcast live to the world (with the taxpayer footing the bill). In contrast, the funeral of Saudi kings and the accession of a new monarch are swift and simple affairs, grounded in the Kingdom's austere brand of Islam and the royal family's tribal roots. |
|
Succession In A Time Of Uncertainty: Revisiting The Past? (Part IV)
After King Salman ascended the throne, his son Muhammad began consolidating power, presuming himself the next in line. Having eliminated his rivals and becoming effectively immune from future challenge, he has cast aside the guidelines and traditions governing the process of succession. But does the ambitious exercise to reset the political dynamic represent merely a course correction for an outdated system, or does it forebode something more sinister? |
|
Succession In A Time Of Uncertainty: Revisiting The Past? (Part III)
A generation of royals brought up to believe that each would rule in turn was unwilling to accept that this could never be realized in practice, while factional rivalries complicated the dynamics of what had been an informal process of consensus building within the family. |
|
Succession In A Time Of Uncertainty: Revisiting The Past? (Part II)
With no formal mechanism in place to decide the succession after Ibn Saud, royal family politics in the decades following his death were often turbulent, as a traditional leadership style based on personal influence and loyalty gave way to the more bureaucratic structures of a modern state. Still, there was no provision for extending the succession to the next generation of princes. |
|
Succession In A Time Of Uncertainty: Revisiting The Past? (Part I)
The crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, is set to become the first of a younger generation to sit upon the throne, a transition which represents a fundamental break with both precedent and a tradition in which of the sons of the Kingdom's founder each took their place in turn. Succession in the royal family, however, is a dynamic process, a reflection of the realities of the time as well as the political environment. |