After the outbreak of the Ukrainian war, the Arab world is in an atmosphere of intense polarization, between the West on one side, and Russia and behind it China, on the one hand.
On the world level, political and media camps are battling for a monopoly over truth and morals in this comprehensive war.
However, there are countries in this world, most notably Saudi Arabia and some Arab countries, that refuse to be dragged behind the Western side without reflection and calculations based on the purely national interest. It is no secret to anyone that Saudi Arabia grips to its sovereignty over its decisions and policies, including its explicit commitment to the “OPEC Plus” agreement, which it originally engineered with the Russians.
The Biden administration, which did not fail to shake confidence with the traditional Arab allies in the Middle East, led by Saudi Arabia, and fuelled bad feelings against Riyadh, is returning today directly or indirectly to court Riyadh, and is trying to include it in its Russian war.
However, Riyadh insists on adopting its old "classical" policy based on not drifting, while monitoring developments to build the situation accordingly.
History tells us that when the First World War broke out, and the Saudi state was in its embryonic beginning, the sultan Abdul Aziz Al Saud sent letters to the princes of the Arabian Peninsula in which he said: “I see that the war has occurred, that we meet to discuss, in the hope that we will agree on what will save Arabs from its horrors, or we ally with one of the countries to preserve our rights and promote our interests.”
In this atmosphere, Great Britain was the most important Western power in the region and the Arabian Gulf, so Abdul Aziz organized his state’s relationship with this great state with wisdom and poise, and concluded the “Jeddah Treaty” of 1927 in which the British government recognized the official and absolute independence of the state of King Abdulaziz without reservations.
We are today in the same first spirit but with an undisputed cling to independence and based on Saudi national interests.
Saudi position on Ukrainian crisis
