{"id":215,"date":"2006-12-23T07:22:11","date_gmt":"2006-12-23T12:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=215"},"modified":"2007-02-27T22:03:30","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T03:03:30","slug":"cheney-vs-baker-in-the-house-of-saud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=215","title":{"rendered":"Cheney vs Baker in the House of Saud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since November 30, 2006, I’ve been writing posts<\/a> about a split among Right Arabists regarding Iran.<\/p>\n

[T]here are signs of a growing Right Arabist split regarding US policy \ttoward Iran. The factions within such a split are representing by Vice \tPresident Cheney, who is trying to bolster Saudi resolve to resist Iranian \tregional dominance, and James Baker, who is trying to facilitate Saudi \tdetente with the Iranians.<\/p>\n

These signs may also be linked to factional battles within the House \tof Saud<\/strong> although limited transparency make these more difficult to \tdiscern on the basis of open source reporting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, all of this is big news. Saudi factionalism has become headline news with major stories in the New York Times<\/a><\/em> and the Washington Post<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The split is about Iran, to be sure. But it is also about Saudi succession.<\/p>\n

In a December 13 post<\/a>, I speculated on the battle lines and got it wrong.<\/p>\n

Is Bandar Baker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s man (and vice versa)?<\/p>\n

And Cheney? Is he now aligned<\/em> with King Abdullah?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Answer: No.<\/p>\n

Cheney and the Sudairi Seven<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bandar is Cheney’s man (and vice versa). The rest of the Right Arabist establishment has lined up behind King Abdullah and the Faisal brothers, Turki (until recently Saudi Ambassador to the US) and Saud (currently Saudi Foreign Minister).<\/p>\n

Cheney isn’t simply backing Bandar. Bandar–the son of Saudi Crown Prince Defense Minister Sultan–represents the Sudairi Seven that let Cheney station 500,000 US troops on Saudi soil in 1990 over the objections of Abdullah.<\/font><\/p>\n

Cheney’s top Middle East aide, David Wurmser<\/a> is crystal clear about his preferences within the House of Saud, not to mention his vision for Iraq and Iran<\/a>. From an article<\/a> while he was still at the American Enterprise Institute:<\/p>\n

To begin to unravel this murky business, it is \tnecessary to go back to the mid-1990s, when a succession struggle was \tbeginning in Saudi Arabia. This struggle pits<\/strong> the octogenarian king, \tFahd bin Abdel-Aziz, and his full brothers in the Sudairi branch of the \tfamily (especially the defense minister, Prince Sultan<\/strong>) against<\/strong> \ttheir half-brother, Crown Prince Abdallah<\/strong>. King Fahd and the Sudairis \tfavor close ties to the United States, while Crown Prince Abdallah prefers \tSyria and is generally more enamored of pan-Islamic and pan-Arab ideas…<\/span><\/p>\n

In August, King Fahd fired his director of \tintelligence, Prince Turki al Faisal<\/strong>… Since the mid-1990s, Turki \thad anchored the Abdallah faction<\/strong>, and under his leadership Saudi \tintelligence had become difficult to distinguish from al Qaeda….<\/span><\/p>\n

More recently, Turki bin Faisal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s full brother, \tSaudi foreign minister Saud bin Faisal, unleashed his diplomats to write \tshrill and caustic attacks on the United States, such as the article a few \tweeks ago by Saudi Arabia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ambassador in London, Ghazi al Qusaibi, calling \tPresident Bush mentally unstable.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Baker Boys and King Abdullah<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the rest of the Baker Big Oil crowd backs Abdullah, favors dialogue with Iran, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

One sign the Baker fidelity to Abdullah came in the case of former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan. According to reports (“Saudis Have Had Enough of US Ambassador,” UPI, September 25, 2003):<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. capital is starting to buzz with \tquestions about the early retirement of U.S. Ambassador to Riyadh Robert \tJordan, apparently demanded by the Saudis<\/strong>. Jordan, a partner in the \tBaker, Botts law firm in Texas (as in former Secretary of State James Baker)<\/strong>, \tis an honorary member of the Bush clan and his premature departure is a \tshock. The State Department has yet to confirm it, though Jordan has told \tfriends that he’s heading back to Texas. His offense was to state too \tpublicly<\/strong> — at private Saudi dinner parties — Washington’s \tpreference for Crown Prince Abdullah<\/strong> to succeed the ailing King Fahd. \tThis supposedly offended Defense Minister Sultan bin Abdul Aziz<\/strong>. \tJordan also annoyed other Saudis by insisting that any American wife of a \tSaudi citizen should get embassy or consulate help in marriage disputes and \tchild custody cases.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Add to this the fact that Chas Freeman took swipes at Prince Bandar<\/a> in 2005, and you can begin to see the outlines of a major split in Washington and Riyadh.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chas Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, says Bandar “has \tbasically been AWOL for years” but had been kept at his post because of \t“inertia at the top” of the Saudi royal family…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then there is Flynt Leverett<\/a>‘s 2005 celebration of the arrival<\/a> of Prince Turki in Washington.<\/p>\n

Which Way for the White House?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This split explains quite a bit about the US factional dynamics of the entire war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

No wonder the White House Iraq Policy Review<\/a> is delayed. Bush and Condoleezza Rice have to pick sides. They are both in way over the heads.<\/p>\n

The obvious question: can Cheney and the Sudairi Seven triumph over Baker and King Abdullah?<\/font><\/p>\n

Put differently, can Bush choose Baker and break his ties to Cheney? Or is Cheney too powerful<\/a> to isolate?<\/p>\n

The stakes could not possibly be any higher. The fate of US relations with Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia–and Russia–likely hang in the balance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
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Since November 30, 2006, I’ve been writing posts about a split among Right Arabists regarding Iran. [T]here are signs of a growing Right Arabist split regarding US policy toward Iran. The factions within such a split are representing by Vice President Cheney, who is trying to bolster Saudi resolve to resist Iranian regional dominance, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}