Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – The former Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, criticized the American media’s reaction to the mockery of a program broadcast on a Saudi channel that mocked US President Joe Biden and his deputy, Kamala Harris, and stressed that the Saudis “are not school students.” They are treated with a “carrot and stick” policy.
Commenting on the article he wrote on “Arab News” recently about that America should laugh with Saudi Arabia instead of complaining about the ridicule of Biden and Harris, Al-Faisal said in an interview with the same media outlet: “My talk in the article about that we should laugh together, was the result of What I considered an unfair and overly sensitive reaction to a comedy clip within a program shown on a Saudi TV channel that ridiculed President Biden and his vice president, and this is something that I think should not affect the American media in particular because they themselves repeatedly mocked others, especially Saudi Arabia, its leadership and society So I wrote this article.
Al-Faisal added, “We considered our relations with the United States of America to be strategic, and we have gone through stages of ups and downs in the level of relations, and this is one of the setbacks in relations, perhaps since the president said in his election campaign that he would make Saudi Arabia a pariah, and he proceeded to implement what he said by stopping joint operations with Saudi Arabia in Dealing with the Houthi rebels in Yemen and by not meeting with the Crown Prince, which he said publicly, and by withdrawing anti-aircraft missiles from the kingdom at a time when we were facing an escalation in Houthi attacks against us using Iranian weapons such as missiles and drones.
The former Saudi intelligence official continued, “As for Saudi Arabia, the crown prince said in an interview that we agree with America by 90% and we can discuss the other 10%, so things have come to here, and I hope that we will overcome that just as we have overcome many setbacks in our relations.”
Al-Faisal added: “The Saudis do not feel betrayed by the US side, but rather feel betrayed at a time when we face a common threat to the security and stability of the region through Iran’s use of the Houthis, not only to destabilize Saudi Arabia, but to influence the security and stability of international shipping lines in the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. President Biden’s removal of the Houthis from the lists of terrorism contributed to strengthening the Houthis and making them more violent towards Saudi Arabia, and even launched attacks on the UAE as well.
The former Saudi intelligence chief added, “American officials announced that they would support Saudi Arabia and help it defend itself from foreign aggression. This is true, and we are grateful for these statements, but we must see more on the ground and at the level of relations between the two leaderships,” he said.
Al-Faisal criticized the US policy towards the energy file, saying that it is the main reason for the crisis that America is experiencing in this field, in addition to several factors, including the increase in insurance prices due to the war in Ukraine and sanctions imposed on the Russian energy sector, not the “insistence of Saudi Arabia” on its position not to raise oil production. .
In response to the statements of the former US Secretary of State and former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton about the necessity of treating Saudi Arabia with a carrot and stick policy, the former intelligence chief said: “I wrote in my article that we are not school students to be treated with carrots and sticks. We are a sovereign country and we must be treated fairly and respond in the same way.” Therefore, it is unfortunate that such statements are issued by politicians, regardless of who they are, and I hope that relations between the two countries are not built on this basis,” he said.