As if by default, the old son of the desert is now trying to lead on virtually every sensitive issue from the peace process to Darfur. Bush administration officials have yet to decide whether Abdullah’s new activism ultimately will support U.S. policy or undermine it, and some privately suggest they’re baffled. Why would Abdullah tell the summit of Arab kings and presidents he convened in Riyadh last week that “in Iraq blood flows between brothers in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation”? While the Saudis opposed the 2003 invasion, they’ve insisted the United States should stay and fix what it broke. But by distancing himself from Washington, Abdullah gains credibility in the vital fight against Tehran for Arab hearts and minds.
The Saudis see President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s incendiary rhetoric against Israel, his backing for Hizbullah and his support for Hamas as crass bids to win support not only among the region’s Shiites but also among the Sunnis. At the same time, Tehran’s race to become a nuclear power is a threat to Saudi Arabia’s influence, if not its survival, and a provocation to George W. Bush. “Do you think those U.S. warships are out there on vacation?” Abdullah warned Ahmadinejad when they met recently, according to sources close to the royal family. Abdullah’s sense of urgency about the Iranian threat goes back at least to September 2005, when “Iraq [was] being presented to the Iranians on a silver platter” by U.S. policy, says Turki al-Faisal, then ambassador to Washington. His brother, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, met with Bush last May to press Saudi concerns. “We have two nightmares,” Saud told the president, according to Turki. “One is that Iran will develop a nuclear bomb, and the other is that America will take military action to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb.”
Over the summer, however, U.S. officials started getting what seemed to be very different signals. Word spread that Saudi Arabia secretly supported a much more aggressive line against Tehran and its clients: that it would undermine Hamas; encourage Israel’s efforts to take out Hizbullah; maybe even facilitate strikes on Iran’s nuclear installations. But when Dick Cheney flew to Saudi Arabia last Thanksgiving weekend to meet directly with the king, Abdullah didn’t support military action. Instead, his policy has been to talk to Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas—using money, diplomacy, even religion to defuse each regional flashpoint, push for peace and block Iran.
The biggest test so far came earlier this year when clashes erupted between Hamas and the Fatah party, threatening full-blown civil war in the Palestinian territories. “He just couldn’t take that,” Foreign Minister al-Faisal told NEWSWEEK. Summoning Palestinian leaders to Mecca, Abdullah successfully pressured them to form a unity government. When the Bush administration and Israel criticized him for undermining efforts to isolate Hamas, the king was “furious,” said a source not authorized to speak on the record. But Abdullah was on a roll. He used the Arab summit to relaunch a peace initiative he first proposed five years ago. It promises full peace for Israel with all Arab states if the Jewish state withdraws to its 1967 borders and an equitable solution is found for Palestinian refugees. Far from dismissing the plan, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has left the door open to further talks. “Saudi Arabia is the country that in the end will determine the ability of the Arabs to reach a compromise with Israel,” he said. To Abdullah, who has seen so much, peace now looks like the best way to revive the beleaguered Arab world—and stifle Iran’s ambitions.
