Easy scapegoats Saudis lose second home

The rhythms of life here turn upside down during the holy month of Ramzan. The real day starts at sunset. After the traditional Iftar meal, ...

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The rhythms of life here turn upside down during the holy month of Ramzan. The real day starts at sunset. After the traditional Iftar meal, Saudis flock to the streets, offices re-open, life begins again.

Sinan Dmaitri works the night shift slinging pepperoni pies at a pizza joint. But this is not where he imagined he would be just a few months ago. His life has changed by the dramatic deterioration in the way Saudi Arabia and the US view each other.

Like so many other young Saudis, Dmaitri, 26, has been kicked out of the US, where he was studying at a junior college in Texas. And like so many other educated, privileged Saudis who once considered America their second home, the suspicion and hostility directed at his people since September 11 has left him embittered towards a country he once admired.

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‘‘I was thinking about staying there and living my life,’’ Dmaitri said. Now, he said, ‘‘I’ll never go back, no way.’’ The souring ties have generated resentment among the Saudis who once were America’s best friends.

Every time a new allegation surfaces, such as the discussion that money from the Saudi ambassador’s wife may have found its way to the September 11 hijackers, the finger seems pointed at them.

The estrangement has spread beyond the diplomatic circles. It runs from military officers who no longer train alongside US counterparts to tourists who no longer visit Florida to rich businessmen who no longer check into US hospitals for medical procedures.

As elsewhere in the West Asia, this has taken an economic toll. But it becomes especially pronounced because of Saudi Arabia’s oil-based wealth and historically strong ties with the US. Business and tourist travel has plummeted by two-thirds in the past year. US exports have dropped by 25 per cent from last year, costing them at least $1.5 billion. Saudi Arabian Airlines have also cancelled its weekly flights.

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US-Saudi relations trace their history to 1945, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, founder of the modern Saudi state, aboard a ship on the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal. Despite a harsh turn in relations during the oil crises of the 1970s, the US helped Saudi Arabia transform itself into a modern state. In 1991 Washington dispatched 500,000 troops to protect the kingdom and expel Iraqi invaders from Kuwait. (LATWP)