A Conversation with HRH Prince Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud

[Music] your highness export for doing this and most importantly for engaging with the media which and well the public actually which is really important and this being you see at the heart of Whitehall I never focus very much on strategic pictures here why hasn't Saudi Arabia responded to what you consider to be an Iranian attack on your oil installations firstly thank you to Russia for for giving me the opportunity to come and we'll get straight into it rather than no point wasting time I don't like to give lectures and I don't like to be at lectures so this is a much better format a lot of people have asked me this question and been very surprised that we didn't ratchet up the reaction that the escalate the conflict make more of a deal out of it but frankly speaking Saudi Arabia does not want to get in a conflict with Iran I've heard a lot of people say why are you constantly trying to get in conflict we have much more to lose than the Iranians we have much further to fall in a conflict we can get into more detail on that but the main reason we have tried to calm things down is that the region needs some more grown-ups in the room and we've realized that we're trying to behave more conscientiously more grown-up with no responsibilities and the last thing we need is to let things get out of control because when they get out of control we've seen what happens everywhere in the region and not just for the last few years but the last 15 20 years we take your grownups Kristen Trump said we are we're locked and loaded what happened between him saying we're locked and loaded in response to that attack and nothing happening to an extent there's only so much I can say this is a question much better left for my sister was the ambassador in Washington the family importance or many other things but I don't want to spend too much time talking about the president you know I'm here in the UK to further relationships at the UK but I will say that we you know locked and loaded came from the you know he is a tweet monster if you like he loves engaging with people on social media etc and I think you know he does so very quickly and sometimes it's just his initial reaction we as I said have been trying to be a calm calming player in in this issue because I don't think people realize how close we were to significant conflict after the tanker attacks the initial tanker attacks because that was I mean the attack on Iran Co was totally out of the blue in our estimation but that was really after the blue we did not expect the Iranians to to get involved with that type of attack to do that sort of thing it's quite brazen quite I mean it's a really poking you in the belly and their attack on Aramco is poking you in the eye and I think the reason that they're behaving in such a way is that they're really getting squeezed and they're trying to provoke a reaction or trying to get the rest of the world to step back and until these times that you need to just hold firm you don't want to be moving forward and increase the the heat in the region but the minute you take a step back is you're showing weakness and you're you're creating space for them to move into and vacuum for them to move into and I hate to talk about Iran in such a way because and I've said this before you know before the Revolution yes there was a rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran Iran was definitely the more powerful partner and player in that rivalry but we were friends we discussed we got along we had reasonable discussions we didn't seek to eliminate each other and even today Saudi Arabia does not seek to eliminate Iran that door seems to be coming on way would it take for Saudi Arabia and Iran to mend their differences and essentially cooperate in the region as President Obama tried rather unsuccessfully to get you to do we've tried if you look at the period from 2005-2006 even before that actually going back a couple of years before that you know we had roughs and Johnny came to Saudi hitomi came to Saudi and dad came to Sowerby King Abdullah went to Iran four times things were looking great we opened our embassy there again we you know we took a lot of concrete steps to try and enhance and develop that relationship it makes no sense we are not a hegemonic player we don't want to control the region in fact the opposite we just want people to leave us alone it just so happens we have two of the most desired things in the world the holy cities of Islam and oil both of which we consider an honor but they are as much a burden as they are a benefit let's turn to Yemen now if we could investor and I mean what is with my views that those attacks probably wouldn't have happened had there not been a war in Yemen and it is a function of that ongoing war which was absolutely devastated that country and the crown prince defence minister took Saudi Arabia into that war in March 2015 what will it take to finish that war my father used to always say to think about war is it's your decision to get involved it's never your decision to get out you need both sides to play and if you look at the and look many things have gone wrong there's nothing that one can do in this life that is going to be perfect all the time that is going to be without fault failure or disaster in some cases and no war is easy wars are very complicated horrible anyone who wishes for war needs to go and see a doctor we went into Yemen genuinely whether people believe us or not in order to try and stop things getting worse nobody seemed to care about what was happening in Yemen until we got involved it wasn't a great place it hasn't been a great place for a long time and we may have had a role in that we may not other people have had a role the world is a complicated place but we actively sought to improve the situation in Yemen we have come to the table with Ruthie's a number of times and it's not us that needs to come to the table it's the Yemenis you know there are the parties to the conflict people often forget about the fact that it's Yemenis fighting each other and we are trying to support the democratically-elected internationally recognized government but we are there to support we have come to the table we've invited the Houthis for talks we talked to them in Kuwait there are a lot of promises being promises that were made and then they pulled back Stockholm we were in Stockholm it wasn't our discussion it was again between the Yemeni groups in the UN promises were made and nothing happened every time we seemed to take a step forward in discussion with with the Houthi groups and their political arms we don't seem to have the follow-through and it goes back to it's a similar thing to where we have with Iran the people who want to talk to you can't deliver and the people who can deliver they want to talk and that just seems to be where we are with both those sides and whether it's the Houthis sort of emulating what the Iranians are doing and the way I see it and again of course as you said they say the same of course I would say this is that we're dealing with a group of people who use subterfuge as part of their political process and so they will try and get you to back down calm down they can push more and at the end of the day rightly wrongly we got fed up with being pushed we were pushed in Iraq we were pushed in Syria were pushed in Lebanon pushed in Arabia and Bahrain you know there aren't many Saudi spies that are arrested in Tehran or Belgium or Germany or the UK but their hell of a lot of Iranian spies that arrested in all those places including Saudi Arabia they are constantly there doing things little things that is making life difficult and complicated and conflict and chaos they seem to feed off chaos and I don't know why I wish I had a good reason and an explanation for it but we have tried talking to them and it's got nowhere unfortunately don't I don't as far as I know we don't have the Iranian ambassador here who can give a report to that but I'm sure they'd have something interesting to say and somebody who is in Riyadh today is President Putin a few years ago that would have been quite extraordinary I think for a Russian president to be getting the highest possible access is this a sign of a diversification and possibly even a kind of seismic shift in the kingdom's relations I mean you've come under a lot of criticism both publicly and privately in the West and will come out a hydrogen a moment but does this mean the Kingdom is getting closer to to Russia and China and moving slowly away from the West well I mean we try and avoid seismic shifts in general part of the reason Saudi Arabia has survived as a single entity as a functioning government for almost a hundred years in the least politically stable part of the world is because we keep managing to do things and we are generally controlled in the way we deal with everyone around us I mean let's not forget it was the Soviet Union was the first country to recognize that Arabia many people don't realize that and we had an open and cordial relationship with the Soviet Union despite being a communist state until Stalin's purges and then we and said this is definitely a country you can deal with and we didn't have relations with the Soviet Union until Gorbachev fast forward to Putin we have issues you know the Russians are supporting Iranians the Syrians some for us bad players in the region does that mean we can't talk to them of course not if you're not talking to people you're not getting anywhere and which is you know we get asked why aren't you talking to the rains we have tried it why aren't you talking about getting anywhere if there's nothing wrong and it's not going to cost us anything to talk to the Russians and to try and bring them over to what we think is credible as a as a policy for the region I think they you know they're very involved in Syria they have an airbase a naval base they support the Iranians heavily in terms of arms will we pivot to one direction other I don't think so I think we live in a world that is much more complicated than the world I grew up and I'm a cold war baby where there were two sides you were good in bed you were on the right side of the wrong side whichever one you were on and that was the world that I grew up knowing the world we live in today is fractured difficult individual it's very easy to agree with your enemies it's very difficult to disagree with your friends and the world we're living in many of the problems that that I see Saudi Arabia facing is because we have a lot of disagreement with our friends you know it's easy with your enemies it's your friends that's the problem and so we're very happy to engage with everyone who wants to engage with us and try and convince them let's do this in a better way you're involved in the region you are entrenched in the region let's figure out a way to make this better for everyone because what we're doing frankly speaking is not positive and it's not going to lead to a solution to the Middle East problems it seems incredible to think but it was only last year that on the other side of the street the red carpet was out fuel Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salam and indeed as it was in Los Angeles in in Hollywood in in DC and your in capitals and yet that all changed on october the second last year with the murder in istanbul of janelle Hachioji and now you've been very outspoken about this in not taking responsibility but I wonder if you'd just like to share what you said to the in the BBC interview with me about this because let's face it there was a little odd for station by your country's authorities about what really happened there you know there was I don't know they put somebody in somebody else's shoes and the bizarre I mean it was embarrassing pantomime frankly to make of the kesaji Martin well I'll repeat what I said an interview with you is that it sustained on Saudi society and culture and its people when I found out what actually happened I was certainly not proud of the way any Saudi could babe let alone members of the Saudi government part of the reason our reaction was so wild was we couldn't believe it actually happened I I mean I was an ambassador in Berlin at the time and when I asked for an update on what happened you know clearly the man had disappeared the the knowledge that we had was yes he disappeared he walked out and we don't know where he is once the truth started coming out I mean it was a shock to the system and when you're in shock sometimes you react poorly and sadly I think perhaps our initial reaction was just clouded in this craziness of what happened could it actually be these guys did this and as it turned out they did people say oh but you've done nothing about it well I would argue differently I mean we've got 11 people on trial in Saudi Arabia and that was very quickly after Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who is you know the al Qaeda planner he's only just about to go on trial of twenty years after planning the greatest attack on American soil you know we moved fairly swiftly to deal with this people may disagree with the way we deal with things but the fact is this is the way our justice system works I believe in it it's not perfect but to find me one that is we are reacting we are taking steps to mitigate these kind of things ever happening again reorganizing our intelligence services reorganizing communication lines in the government we are we've got investigations into another 14 people I think so we include saga cough tally who was named by the CIA as one of the most likely suspects he's investigating being investigated as well yes he was removed from his position but we have no concrete evidence that has come to light of what he's done but you know there are possible links but he's not convicted of anything we have got no definitive evidence that says he is involved we have tried with with our friends in Istanbul to or in Ankara to get information but they won't share with us they say we won't share with them you know it's one of these silly impasses that nobody wants to share with anyone else we have very little to share with them because what happened happened in Istanbul not in Saudi your appointment here to London to the courtesan james's together with that of your sister to to Washington and those it's part of a bigger effort I think to explain Saudi Arabia better and you yourself I think have said Saudi Arabia does need to explain itself better it's one of the least understood and certainly least visited in terms of general visitors countries in the world and but impressions can only go so far ultimately it comes down to what happens on the ground and I've certainly seen a more open on the face of it Saudi Arabia since my last visit I was there two weeks ago it's already a more open place but a lot of things are still going on behind the scenes which are readily condemned by human rights organizations so let me just ask women protestors why are they still in prison people like new journal ha smooth well Jane is being investigated I'm asking to drive no I can't talk about the details of an investigation as it's running but when it's done information will come out this is a mistake that it's an unfortunate link that people make not just to her and and others but to a number of issues is you take a snapshot picture and you say this is what this person does and now that they're in jail they're not in jail because of this thing that they did there are thousands of women who protested over the last 20 years for women driving my sister was one of them none of them are in jail she and others are investigated being investigated and being held for other things that they did just because they happen to be protesting for greater women's rights does not mean that is why they're in jail otherwise we you know we'd have 20,000 women in jail my mother Nujood my wife and plenty of other Saudis who who you know want positive change in Saudi we have the same kind of link that people make with oh you arrested in academic yes this was an academic by technical standards but this is a man who happened to be a religious preacher in a religious University who wants the Saudi Arabia to become more Islamic not less Islamic or less developed or you know you can't just take the snapshot you've got to take the holistic picture now I will grant you the fact that we haven't released all the information yet because we are investigating in the nature of our system we don't release information about people being investigated until the investigation is done so I can understand why there's a blank there and hopefully in time things will come to light in jail let's come into the changes that NBS Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is is pushing in the country he has done what no previous ruler has done in terms of introducing entertainment public seminar allowing women to drive etc these big social and cultural changes not political changes but social cultural ones why do you think there hasn't been any pushback from the religious fundamentalists are they biding their time has he bought them off are they scared are they suddenly converted to cinema well you've got a lot of elements to this I think the ultra-conservative with a you know it's difficult to know what to call everyone nowadays the ultra cancer development of surgery but that is definitely against many of these changes he has thinned out quite a lot we've arrested many of them we you know again we get criticized you're not doing enough to counter concern you know the ultra-conservatives we arrest them and throw them in jail why have you thrown them in jail you know it's you can only have one or the other we can't magically change their minds if they don't want to change their minds having said that we have one of the most successful rehabilitation programs from the ultra ultra conservative extremists who end up taking becoming violent they're joined - al Qaeda we're in Syria where in Iraq were in Yemen were not honest an all over the place eighty percent of the young men who joined these and women actually who joined these groups come back when we get hold of them we put them through this it's a fascinating you might have seen it but I'm sure quite a lot of people here haven't seen the center it's a quite a fascinating process of development of Rhian gauging them into society and re explaining what the Quran actually says what the Prophet actually said many of them turn around say why didn't you teach us this when we were young men we wouldn't have done what we did and we've learning from that and we're trying to change our curriculums but 20% of them still go back there what I call in law schools there's nothing you can do about them now no amount of change is going to change these people's point of view and those people we throw in jail so you're eliminating or trying to eliminate the hardcore virus at its heart you do that it spreads less even if you don't totally get rid of it there's less to spread so that's one - I think a lot of people are sympathetically ultra-conservative in that that's all they know they've never seen a world otherwise they've never seen a way of thinking otherwise and all they need is the chance to see something different you know we will let women drive and fire and brimstone hasn't rained down upon Saudi Arabia the the ground hasn't split open and everyone fallen inside God hasn't Lala let out a scream that has killed you know millions of Saudis people are saying you can make these changes and still survive and continue and not lose who you are and your social culture your religious culture and be who you are you know you let people make their own choices it seems to me for quite some time that the the biggest challenge the kingdom faces isn't actually around it's not Islamic extremism it's not Yemen it's not - it's not al-qaida its employment it's the the massive task of finding jobs for these hundreds of thousands of educated school leavers and university graduates who are pouring onto your job market and in many cases are not actually equipped for the modern marketplace well the crown prince is trying to introduce his vision 2030 is he going to be able to deliver and the economic front given the mass of confidence induced by the murder of Karachi a lot of people pulling out of investing in neon and 2030 is he still going to be able to deliver on his economic programme yes he has to otherwise there's no Saudi Arabia you know what he's what he saw and I've said this before he saw a country that was incredibly successful but was heading straight for a very very thick hard wall and we had realized we were heading for a wall but we were still discussing how we get around the wall and not taking the steps to take to slow down or turn around and we were so close that he had to pull a hand brake basically now when you also do that unless you're a skilled driver you lose control and you probably hit the wall anyway you just hit it situs exactly which we're very good at insanity for those who don't know is the art of spinning your car in circles which we're very good at inside BM okay I'm gonna throw this open to two questions now and if you can state your name and your organization please their animal record which is good and change Sir John Jenkins from an ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia what's happening northeastern Syria with the Turks go in and so forth I mean because it's kind of static but everything we've seen about about the conflict in the region over the last ten years is ill on gains from it it looks to me is that this is gonna be the case again and we are going to working towards a confrontation between Iran and Israel where does how do you a beast and in all of this I mean sort of vague general sense in diplomatic speak we don't like it at all I'll be a little bit more undiplomatic in that I think it's a disaster for the region again if people just look at the region open their eyes and think through what they're seeing versus using their preconceived notions to come up with a separate analysis who has benefited from every single disaster in the last ten years in the Middle East it ain't Saudi Arabia that's for sure everything we've done in fact has you know been countered in some way in the things that we've done that have been in the greater interest have been at Saudi Arabia's cost whether it's money that we've given to you know friends in the region to help them survive whether it is trying to control the oil price you know we could easily have led the oil price skyrocket and made you know and billions and billions more than then what we make but no we try and control it because it's not good for the world if the world gets ill sad Uribe gets ill but we used to say that my father used to say that about Washington is that his job in the United States was to stop the United States from getting the cold is when the u.s. got the cold we are the flu it's now a much wider thing the diseases are easy much easier spread across the board and so we need to stop the whole of the region getting a cold because it always comes back to us and I'm not saying we're the most after it's altruistic country in the world but very little is going our way and I think part of the reason region is reason is we are not as I said earlier hegemonic we don't want to control the world we want everyone to leave us alone whereas many other players want influence in the region and it's creating chaos at the end of the day you know the last thing we need is another front of chaos in the region and I think we just got it how we solve it I don't know yet but I would I wish more people would help us that's for sure I'm hoping some of the ladies in the room are gonna I go to a lot of these things and they're never enough questions from women in the room so please if I see if I captured a lady's eye so to speak you're going to be next lady over here my name is Clara's pastor I just left the post of head of office in Erbil Kurdistan but the Kurdish question has been asked to have another one which is about the Russians so President Putin ASA for your opinion and I should have added sorry President Putin is in Riyadh today I am aware of the fact that he has that the Russians have probably developed the most detailed proposal until now when it comes to the so-called regional security architecture with quite a lot of detailed proposals derived from the OSE model on confidence-building measures and weapons as a supervision models etc can you tell us a bit about this and why that this will be discussed today and what do you think if anything might come out of it thank you I think I don't have enough detail on it to discuss it in any definitive terms but I know of it and it's definitely being discussed how could you not discuss it well there anything comes of it or not is difficult you know I think and I it's not a criticism it's a reality of the world we live in I you you know the two countries that are most involved in the region are the United States and Russia right now and they're both very different and want very different things out of the region but they're also very similar they're very much based on what what are their interests and they're not really particular focused on anything else I don't blame them they're both far away from the region we're there every other detail is incredibly important to us what happens in the next 40 years is important to us the next hundred years is important to us not just what happens tomorrow or next year or you know what it costs to do this for one event or etc I think Putin's visit comes at an incredibly useful time considering what's happening now in northern Syria hopefully we can work from whatever formula they may have I think that there is some benefit in to bringing the Russians and not just because they're already region but one of the things we've said for a long time is you know the the Middle East is not Central Europe or Western Europe or North America you can't deal with the Middle East the same way you deal with other parts of the world it's different on so many culturally historically I mean the basis of our culture in Arabia is non agrarian which nobody in Western in Europe or North America can possibly comprehend it's not about land so we are a very different sort of people the Russians do to some extent understand the East a lot better than the West's and I think it may be beneficial to have someone from a different point of view I don't always agree with what the Russians are doing then again I don't always agree with the British or the Americans are doing so but getting more people at the table to talk not too many because too many voices leads nowhere unfortunately a few more different opinions and if we can just get people to focus on stabilizing the region you know I've always believed Saudi Arabia is the economic dynamo of the region at the moment and if we can get Saudi Arabia really moving and stabilize the rest the whole region benefits and then the whole world benefits I don't want to talk too and great using great terminology and vague words but I really think there's an opportunity out of difficulty to create some positive change because I think people are waking up and saying look we're fed up of this this is ridiculous but we're going to need the rest of the world to help let's take the next special technology company that does large-scale simulation thank you for your candor can I pick out the point you were saying about different cultures 100 years for all of its existence the king of Saudi Arabia has it faced we've been able to insulate itself from the sort of effects of globalization and other cultures and taken that it wishes of them how is it going to be possible to protect that very conservative and deeply rooted society from the excesses of globalization when tourism opens up I'm not stressing centric a minuite thought but how are we going to defend against the summary excesses of the 21st century very good see you again it's a very good question because that's a very long-term question and it's one that very few people hear people always want to ask about the strategic policy institutions of government religion economy but nobody's thinking about the long-term effect of culture and the social network because that's a fabric that's kept the country together for the last hundred years it hasn't just happened because you know the monarchy has been so perfect it's run the country well there's been a lot of moving parts to what has kept the country unified in for the first time in its history Arabia has never been unified very briefly under the opening era of Islam but after that it fell apart again we are complicated and probably quite annoying people to be honest if I'm being honest but it's it's a difficult question you know we are we're coming to terms and I think in the modern world with social media with the smaller world that we live in and the piece of information you know I was thinking the other day you know when I was you know 14 15 years old if I wanted to know the most important thing about my grandmother it would take me a few days to get that information to me right now I can find out what someone is having for breakfast halfway around the world right now two seconds after they've had it something totally insignificant is instant information is instant you can't hide or slow things down unfortunately unless there's a world disaster which I hope there isn't and I know a lot of people are worried about it around London now but I think we we need to focus on providing people the knowledge of what is their culture what it means to be a Saudi what is their tradition and let them make the decision on where they want to take I look in fact it was Prince Charles who told me this once he said people misunderstand what tradition means tradition does not mean holding on to what was it means taking what was in the spirit of it and applying it to the world you live in and I think that is a lesson many of us can learn and particularly US and Saudi were facing this issue is to say look this is the tradition keep it protected but develop it and I think what we're trying to do that I think we're doing a good job of it but at the end of the day you know we're just caretakers of that tradition someone else's you know the next generation must want to keep it but inevitably you will lose that's just the way of things past I can tell you one free flow here which is great but it's not just asked you keep your answers slightly shorter because we've got a little arms I'll so gentlemen you hear me red special tie oh and then actually we're just good behind you first life is so entire first and then red time thank you much your excellency Jim Spencer from AIG a peace talk between the Houthis and the Saudis and potential peace are there any plans for the opening up of maritime access points within the Houthi control areas and if so what are those arrangements like you to look like well I mean we have allowed access much more than people assume that we have much of the access that is particular today them most of the other ports are in government control and are open a lot of the blockages that happen with things come into the data is not necessarily from our side we can't get permits from the Houthis who are controlling today there have been times when and it you know based on certain issues in certain information where we have blockaded the port but it has not been regular and one when the port was blockaded we certainly when it comes to aid have tried to funneled in through other areas you know we've opened seven major road networks into Yemen we've been rebuilding three ports so that there can be accessed but we can't control everything that goes into the data and so when things are particularly difficult we put a stop to it but by and large we are not blockading the port much of the problem comes from the Houthi side and not giving permits for ports and a lot of that is aid as far as how things will develop it will have to wait and see how the Houthis want to deal with us or the Yemeni government rather Chris banana some member yo.hannes from up until about three years ago the GCC was very much you know a way forward creating an alliance stability in the region and then you know you fell out with Qatar can you say something about that relationship and the way forward for the GCC thank you well I think fill out with us rather than the other way around there has been an issue there that goes back you know people only talking about it the last two years but this goes back 15 years and for 15 years we have tried to placate to discuss to work with the properties and they don't seem to want to work with us and the event after event thing after thing annoyance after annoyance it wasn't just us a number of us taking the four countries of the boycott decided enough is enough you don't want to be part of the system then don't you go your way and we'll go ours it's I didn't I mean there are more people concerned about Kaaba which is an ultra wealthy country that seems to according to their own version of events has no problem with the boycott they've survived perfectly fine without us more people are worried about pop up considering it says it has no problem then anyone cared about Cuba I mean Cuba is blockaded by the Americans for how long and it was a poor nation with poor people that had to you know create spare parts for cars that had to you know in a developed along wave if I could just jump in here the point is though that the rift between let's face it Saudi Arabia UAE in Bahrain on the one hand and cut our up in the mortise tab means that the GCC is really doesn't really exist anymore I mean it does by name but the golf community is gone a loss the issue with copper is it's a particularly difficult issue between family members we will work it out but family member this goes back to what I was saying earlier between countries it's very easy to agree with your enemies it's much more difficult to disagree with your friends and I think properties are almost Saudis and the Saudis are almost coppery the fact that we've disagreed hurts a lot more and therefore it's much more difficult to back down from the difficulty and at the end of a you know we have open arms for the companies if they want to come and talk to us we're not driving them away they're working away next question everybody Fiona missed four men are at Geoffrey's international I would like to jump on your I mean your suggestion that appeasement is the way to go for us economists appeasement also in the region means obviously our geopolitical risk premia that drives all prices and there's clearly a tension between trying to move that way and and we're and seeing all prices move move either move further down and that in itself can be a clear challenge for Saudi Arabia particularly that when we look at how the reform momentum has been going we have seen some reversals over the last few years in terms of really pushing ahead in trying to adjust to the new normal so how do you see this tension moving ahead and and or do you think that the dividends of appeasement are actually much much important boy peas went well I think appeasement has limits you know we have a problem with this is what I was saying earlier about with Iran you know we have pushed to I think as far as as possible moving backwards and appeasing around me is a it's a big mistake for us because then they they know where our weaknesses well every time we want something we just have to launch some missiles at an oil facility or blow ups and thank errs or kidnap a tanker and they're bent because they won't react because we just did the biggest attack on Saudi Arabia and nobody reacted so the key is not to appease but it's not to push forward either I think we're a fairly difficult place and by the way I say this knowing that the country most likely to be negatively affected by this is Saudi Arabia it's not Washington it's not London it's not Berlin it's not Paris it ain't Moscow Saudi Arabia that's going to have bear the brunt of this but it's a it's a price that's worth taking some things you must stand up and fight for and if that fighting comes at a cost so be it that's life life is not easy it's very difficult and this is why we're very appeasement historically and there's no need to go into the details doesn't often work very rarely does it work ok David Abraham former vice president of Russia I must be frank with you your honesty is overwhelming it's excellent thank you very much and my question is about Israel you're throwing relations on a brighter note with Israel which is very commendable that we have got the Israel Palestine situation you have put a a peace initiative forward a considerable number of years ago which I totally agree with can you see any prospects for them taking that a peace agreement forward with Israel I think I would just read reword the way we do you know the way the relationship goes because for us it always has been what is right for the Palestinian people is what is right for Saudi Arabia and until the Palestinian people say they're happy with us doing something we will not unilaterally move in a particular direction rightly or wrongly you know I've heard lots of arguments either way for that but it's always been our primary point in our relationship which is why I'm always fascinated by the criticism side Uribe gets for being too friendly to Israel or to anti Palestinian where we're the only country that doesn't recognize Israel with the country that goes out of its way to make a point of that and yet we get criticized for Saudi Arabia may possibly allow Israeli aircraft to flow over the country well look at all the neighbors of Israel who have open relationships and embassies why isn't that you know criticized but that's a sorry a private point of annoyance to me but look there's no there's no question that peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis would dramatically improve the Middle East dramatically it is a very difficult issue though there's no question we've been so close to peace so many times and not just once I mean that the Saudi peace plan which King Abdullah pushed was first suggested in 1982 by King Fahad and nobody wanted to hear about it in 1982 when King Abdullah pushed that we pushed that very hard and I couldn't believe it that we were sitting inside be saying why isn't everyone jumping on top of this on this bandwagon this is an opportunity to bring the whole of the Middle East and I remember at the time my father was very involved and people said yeah but what about the other Arab country and sadly we said don't you worry about the Arab world we will bring them you get the Israelis to agree we will bring every single one which I found amazing we were asking much of the world to convince one country while we were prepared to convince you know not just the Arab world but the Muslim world can I just jump in there ambassador because I was out the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002 where that peace plan the time come Prince Abdullah peace van was launched and it was a massive diplomatic challenge to Israel to Ariel Sharon but then what happened next was that a number of suicide bombers were sent by Hamas into Israel and she said we will never make peace under fire and that was the end of it for years we're gonna have to move on here because we're god I'm gonna finish it through he because I promised I would we've got time for two more questions lady over here hello your highness Catherine felt from the times and I'll appreciate the gravity call for brevity and just across these regional issues we've just been talking about do you still see the Trump administration as a trustworthy consistent and reliable ally and how would you put Congress in there luckily I'm not the ambassador to Washington look again and I don't mean to avoid your question but I don't think it's appropriate for me to be addressing that issue because I'm not in Washington and politics a lot happens behind the scenes as much happens behind us in front I'm not privy to all that even though it's my sister who's ambassador she doesn't tell me everything like much of my life with happy happy to advise but very very difficult to share information but I think I'll be a little vague if you don't mind we are concerned no question what has happened in Turkey in Syria with turkey and pulling out the troops it doesn't give one incredible confidence but then we saw them sending quite a lot of anti missile batteries to Saudi and some troops to help us manage the northern defenses it's difficult to judge I haven't had I've had no conversation with the American government officials so I don't really know what they're thinking I know as much as you do you probably know more about it than I do so Omer Kareem a visiting fellow at Russia I would like to ask you about Saudi Arabia's relationship with Turkey recently Saudi foreign minister ibrahim al asif he visited cyprus and affirmed support for the sovereignty of the island nation how do you see Saudi relationship with Turkey progressing and would Saudi Arabia launch certain other diplomatic ventures that may not go well with Ankara thank you well I mean frankly speaking we conduct our policy based on what's right for Saudi Arabia not Ankara Ankara has issues with what we're doing that's anchors problem we have no problem with with Turkey we have no problem with the Turkish government they seem to have a big problem with us at the moment I don't know what it is but you may read between the lines of what they say you know we genuinely and you know I won't I have a tendency to talk too much my wife tells me that all the time so does Frank we will do what is in the interests of said Rabia and the betterment of the region if people don't want to play that game then I would say that the game that they're playing is in nefarious and and unfortunately selfish one that's always been the policy of Saudi Arabia it will always be the policy of Saudi Arabia and we hope other people fall into line well with where we want to go but again we have open years if people have better advice we'll listen one quick last question for me on black in black from the Middle East center at the LSE ambassador thank you and it was a fascinating tour doors own I wonder on the question of President Trump and his proposed deal of the century to bring about peace between Israel and the Palestinians did you ever think in in Riyadh that there was any chance of that and what was the what was the furthest you were prepared to go to make that deal work sorry which so president rumpus has been talking about his deal of the century sorry and the Saudi role in that again I've had no details on what the framework of that deal is we we had some information about the economic aspects in Bahrain of what they wanted but to my knowledge I've got no information on what the actual political side of the deal is I've heard rumours and inferences and suggestions of what might be in it but I've seen nothing concrete so it's difficult to have an opinion on something that they won't talk to us about it at the moment they may have had conversations above my head but I've heard nothing yet in general I think a deal would be great but I can't comment on something I don't know unfortunately sorry okay well apologies to many of you got your hands up and saw that we're not able to to fit all of that in I think the fact that there are so many questions is a tribute to what an interesting and often misunderstood country Saudi Arabia is there is so many different angles that we could still go down here with this but the fact that it's new ambassador is prepared to take these questions I think is really welcome we've had some interesting ambassadors in the past as yoga Sobe and Prince Turki al-faisal and I really hope that this means that is going to be a new openness at that pile you inhabit and Mayfair Salem Carson Street so and please extend well thanks to the ambassador for taking the questions and thanks for your time [Applause]

Channel: RUSI

Views: 45,782

Rating: 4.7345133 out of 5

Keywords: analysis, defence and security

Id: QbUaaspPKww

Length: 50min 47sec (3047 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 15 2019