Saudi prince at Davos: U.S. has no foreign policy
Special to WorldTribune.com
LONDON — Saudi Arabia has determined that the United States lacks a policy to address the crisis in the Middle East and beyond.
A senior Saudi prince asserted that the administration of President Barack Obama has been paralyzed amid the Sunni revolt in Syria.
Prince Turki bin Faisal al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, Chairman of King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, speaks during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Jan. 23. /Reuters/Denis Balibouse
Prince Turki AL Faisal speaks during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Jan. 23. /Reuters/Denis Balibouse
Former Saudi intelligence director Prince Turki Al Faisal also criticized Obama’s policy toward Iran.
“It is not just about Iran, Syria,” Turki said. “It’s the sense of no direction.”
In a Jan. 24 address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Turki, a former Saudi ambassador to Britain and the United States, said Washington was not even using diplomacy to stop the war in Syria, which has killed an estimated 120,000 people since 2011. The prince said the United States must push for a United Nations Security Council resolution for a withdrawal of Iranian proxies from Syria.
“I want the Americans to go to the Security Council and get a resolution that forces should be deployed to stop the fighting in Syria,” Turki said. “If that is not available, then at least a humanitarian corridor to allow people not to starve.”
Turki represented the latest Saudi criticism of U.S. policy in the Middle East. Riyad has focused on Washington’s refusal to help Sunni rebels in Syria while working with Iran to resolve regional disputes. The administration has sought to play down the Saudi position.
“On the Syria issue among other things, the [American] policy hasn’t
been clear and definitely the actions have not been clear either,” Turki
said. “This disturbs America’s allies because we’ve grown to depend on
America.”
http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/01/26/saudi-prince-at-davos-u-s-has-no-foreign-policy/
