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Focus on U.S.-Saudi Relations

[PBS] Ray Suarez - According to Robert Baer, who spent 21 years as a caseworker for the CIA, much of that time focused on Saudi Arabia, the number-one agenda item for President Bush's meeting with Saudi King Abdullah "was Iran. It was Iran, Iran, Iran." Thomas Lippman, an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute, said the Saudis "were blindsided by that National Intelligence Estimate about the Iranian nuclear program. They're confused about what the Americans are really up to here." When Baer was asked if worries about Iran have pushed what was often the number-one item in Saudi-U.S. talks, the Israel-Palestine question, further down the list, he replied: "Oh, I think absolutely. But, you know, at the end of the day, what the Saudis are worried about is that we go to Tehran and cut a deal, and Saudi Arabia then falls to a second-rate position in its relations with the United States."
2008-01-15 01:00:00
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