Saudi Arabia's Backstage Diplomacy

Report Outline
Role in Middle East Peace
Saudi Rise to World Power
Dilemmas of Saudi Leaders
Special Focus

Role in Middle East Peace

Sadat's Peace Initiative: Carter's Visit

Since Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's dramatic visit to Jerusalem on Nov. 19, world attention has been riveted on the fast-moving chain of events precipitated by the new dialogue between Egypt and Israel. But decisions made in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, may have a greater impact on the chances for peace in the Middle East than the meetings between high-ranking Egyptian and Israeli officials. With almost a quarter of the world's proven reserves of oil and annual income from petroleum at about $40 billion, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has become the financier for the Arab confrontation states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). And it is a major factor in the fate of the international economy.

The kingdom's political and economic leverage was first demonstrated after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Anwar Sadat has said that he started that war to refocus world attention on the Middle East. It was less the Arab armies than the Arab oil producers, led by Saudi Arabia, that brought a change in world, particularly American, attitudes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The embargo declared by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) on Oct. 17, 1973, was followed by a quadrupling of oil prices by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Saudi Arabia's price for lifting the embargo was a more active and even-handed American role in trying to achieve a Middle East settlement.

President Carter was doubtless aware of the similarities between 1973 and 1977–78 when he met with Saudi leaders in Riyadh on Jan. 3 and 4 during his recent trip abroad. President Sadat has again focused world attention on the Middle East and the Saudis are again calling upon the United States to put pressure on Israel to meet Arab demands for a withdrawal from all territories captured in the June 1967 war. Carter sought but did not receive Saudi Arabia's endorsement for Sadat's peace initiative. If that initiative fails and if the current stalemate continues or a fifth Arab-Israeli war erupts, the kingdom might again resort to using its oil weapon with consequences that could be far more devastating than in 1973.