Nation: Saudi Arabia: A Friendship Strained

No other country in the Middle East is more important to U.S. economic and strategic interests than Saudi Arabia. Because of the immense oil wealth of the desert kingdom, its internal stability and its political moderation in Arab affairs, Washington has regarded Riyadh's support for the Camp David accords as vital to the success of any peace settlement. That support has not been forthcoming, despite pleas from Washington and Cairo. Saudi Arabia views any Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty as essentially bilateral and insists that only a comprehensive settlement involving all the confrontation states...

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