Saudi Arabia: An ally we cannot afford to lose

…Saudi Arabia is such a key country. Strategically, it not only straddles Africa and the Middle East but it is also an important neighbour of two of the major problem countries in the region – Iraq and Iran. Saudi Arabia’s importance to the oil market, with one quarter of the world’s oil reserves, speaks for itself. It is also a crucial market for British defence companies.

No less important, Saudi Arabia is at the very heart of Islam – a responsibility of which the Saudis are deeply conscious. If one billion people turned in prayer towards Canterbury every day we might feel the same.


Those who think Saudi Arabia should be more democratic and that we should push them in that direction are – to use a fashionable term – delusional. Saudi society is far too complex and too fissured for that to be a viable option any time soon.

The experience of Iraq should teach us that pasting democracy on to a divided nation only entrenches division. Saudis recognise that democracy would be unworkable in the foreseeable future. What they would like to see is more consultation and more participation in government. That indeed is what is happening, at the snail’s pace typical of the Saudi style.

Telegraph