Thaindian News

Washington, Mar. 15 (ANI): American officials are getting increasingly concerned about the level of stability in Saudi Arabia, suggesting that country too faces the prospect of unrest, succession politics and resistance to reform.

So far, oil-rich Saudi Arabia has successfully stifled public protests with a combination of billions of dollars in new jobs programs and an overwhelming police presence, backed by warnings last week from the foreign minister to “cut any finger that crosses into the kingdom.”

Monday’s action, in which more than 2,000 Saudi-led troops from Gulf States crossed the narrow causeway into Bahrain, demonstrated that the Saudis were willing to back their threats with firepower.

According to the New York Times, the move has presented another quandary for the Obama administration, which obliquely criticized the Saudi action without explicitly condemning the kingdom, its most important Arab ally.

The criticism was another sign of bilateral ties being strained, even as the United States pushes Saudi Arabia to make greater reforms to avert unrest.Other symptoms of stress seem to be cropping up everywhere.

Saudi officials have made no secret of their deep displeasure with how President Obama handled the ouster of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, charging Washington with abandoning a longtime ally.

They show little patience with American messages about embracing what Obama calls “universal values,” including peaceful protests.

When Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were forced to cancel visits to the kingdom in recent days, American officials were left wondering whether the cause was King Abdullah’s frail health - or his pique at the United States.

In recent days, Washington has tried to focus on areas where its strategic interests and those of Saudi Arabia intersect most crucially: Counter-terrorism, containing Iran and keeping the oil flowing.The Americans fear that the unrest sweeping the Middle East is coming at a bad time for the Saudis, and their concerns have increased in recent weeks, partly because of the continued tumult in Bahrain.

The latest tensions between Washington and Riyadh began early in the crisis when King Abdullah told President Obama that it was vital for the United States to support Mubarak, even if he began shooting protesters. Obama ignored that counsel.

“They’ve taken it personally,” said one senior American familiar with the conversations, “because they question what we’d do if they are next.”Since then, the American message to the Saudis, the official said, is that “no one can be immune,” and that the glacial pace of reforms that Saudi Arabia has been engaged in since 2003 must speed up.

In a relationship where the United States hardly has the upper hand, so far the discussions have largely steered clear of democratization and focused on safer subjects: energy and foreign threats.

Saudi Arabia has helped stabilize world energy prices by increasing its crude-oil production to make up for the loss of Libya’s oil.

Some officials say that in some ways the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia may grow closer, particularly on security and counter-terrorism issues, where there has been increased cooperation in the months before the protests began in the Middle East. (ANI)