Rice urges Saudis to do more to fight terrorism

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (L) and Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal hold a joint press conference after their meeting in Jeddah yesterday.. PHOTO: AFP

After a meeting aimed at improving ties between the two nations, Rice said both sides were united in fighting terrorism but urged Saudi Arabia to help improve the image of the United States among its people.

"Of course they can do more, but we can do more too," said Rice at a news conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

Prince Saud said Riyadh, battling a two-year campaign of bombings and shootings by al-Qaeda militants, was doing all it could to fight terrorism and blamed the media for creating the opposite impression.

"We are fighting as hard as we can," he said. "I would dare anyone to say there is another country that is fighting terror as hard as we are."

He said Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and which practices an austere version of Islam, had made incitement a crime and it was also clamping down on the financing of terrorist groups.

Relations between the world's biggest oil exporter and consumer were based for decades on guaranteed Saudi oil supplies in return for US military support. Shared enemies, including Soviet forces in Afghanistan, cemented the alliance.

But the September 11, 2001 attacks and invasion of Iraq in 2003 highlighted widespread hostility in Saudi Arabia to Washington, a hostility which US lawmakers blamed on Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi school of Islam that they said fostered militancy.

Most of the September 11 suicide attackers were Saudis.

At a hearing in Congress last week, lawmakers criticised the Saudis for not doing enough to fight terrorism, a claim the Saudis vehemently deny.

Sunday's meeting was the inauguration of a new "strategic dialogue" to emerge from a meeting in April between President George W. Bush and King Abdullah which was aimed at having high-level meetings between both sides every six months.

Both sides announced six working groups to try and improve ties, including groups to tackle counter-terrorism, military issues, energy, economic and financial affairs.

Prince Saud said his government was trying hard to improve public perceptions of the United States and he hoped the working groups would help in this regard.

"There is what I would call a misunderstanding about Saudi Arabia among the US public, as there is a misunderstanding about the United States among the Saudi public. That is why we are trying to influence this," he added.

Rice also said there were problems in every relationship and the key issue was to try and resolve problems honestly.

Despite these overtures, experts say there are still many misunderstandings between both countries and Washington's pushiness over reform measures irks the kingdom.

The State Department cited Saudi Arabia last week in an annual report on religious freedom for denying religious freedom to non-Muslims.

"We have some big issues with the Saudis and they have some with us too," said one US official, who asked not to be named. "Saudi society is so difficult for Americans to penetrate and so I don't know how close we will ever be," he added.