A Saudi greeting to the world that is three centuries old

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As I followed the speech of the Saudi representative to the United Nations, Abdullah Al-Wasel, from the podium of the UN Security Council, explaining his country’s policies, and warning the world of the danger of complacency with the Houthi militias in Yemen, specters of the past of the Saudi political approach throughout history, the approach to foreign relations with the world, floated in my mind.

Some people believe, in good or bad faith, that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a newly established entity, and that foreign relations are something new to it. This is not true. Rather, there is what can be described as the Saudi school in foreign policy, which is nearly three centuries old!

With the expansion of the First Saudi State, and its influence reaching near the British agency in Kuwait and Basra (1798-1799 AD), Britain sent the representative of the British East India Company, Mr. John Reno, to Diriyah, and Reno held talks with Imam Abdul Aziz bin Muhammad. Britain's primary goal was to obtain guarantees to protect the safety of the company's mail and commercial lines that passed through the desert road from Basra to Aleppo, which was inhabited by tribes subject to the influence of the Saudi state. Imam Abdul Aziz bin Muhammad responded to this matter and pledged to protect trade and its routes from Iraq to the Levant, all the way to the ports of the White Sea, sensing the vitality of this issue for the life of the state and the well-being of the people.

In the second state, the Saudi Golden Era was in the days of Imam Faisal bin Turki, grandfather of King Abdul Aziz. His reign lasted 23 years, and the government of British India saw in the influence of Imam Faisal over the tribes east of the Arabian Peninsula, from the far north of the east to the far south, as a stabilizing factor that served its commercial and security interests, because that influence achieved stability and security at home, and prevented the spread of conflicts from the interior to the coasts and ports.

Imam Faisal also communicated with the British, and always informed them of his keenness to reach peaceful relations with them, protect trade, and not infringe on their commercial vessels and their subjects.

Months before the death of Imam Faisal in 1865, Britain sent its famous representative, Captain Lewis Pelly, to discuss regional policy matters with Imam Faisal. It was an exciting trip, the details of which Pelly recorded in a published book.

As for the reign of King Abdul Aziz, the matter does not need much explanation. It is enough to ponder one issue, which is: How did King Abdul Aziz protect the state and the people from the storms of the First and then the Second World War, these storms that brought down empires, monarchies and sheikhdoms, through his drawing up of a balanced foreign policy? How did he make his country an element that enhances regional security, trade and movement?

Today, when the Saudi delegate finished reciting his speech before the world, those great groups from the past seemed to me smiling and greeting!

Quoted from "Al-Sharq Al-Awsat"