Bush Becomes Supplicant for Saudi's Aid to Help Avoid Recession

Bush Becomes Supplicant for Saudi's Aid to Help Avoid Recession

By Janine Zacharia
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Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Saudi monarchy once depended on the U.S. to protect its reign and its oil from foes like Saddam Hussein. These days, President George W. Bush needs the world's biggest exporter of crude more than it needs him.

With oil at about $90 a barrel, the U.S. economy at risk of sliding into recession and American banks trying to raise cash to ride out the subprime-mortgage crisis, Bush has become a supplicant for Saudi financial help. He also needs the kingdom to get behind his Palestinian peace push, to keep Iran at bay and to support political stability in Iraq.

``It's very late in his tenure,'' says Craig Unger, author of ``House of Bush, House of Saud,'' which probed the relationship between the two families, and a new book, ``The Fall of the House of Bush.'' ``He's in a much weaker position now, and he has very little leverage.''

It wasn't always this way. During the presidency of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, ``the United States had an extraordinarily close and cooperative relationship with Saudi Arabia across the board,'' says Chas. Freeman, who was then U.S. ambassador to the kingdom. ``Saudi Arabia made a special effort to remain the principal supplier of oil to the U.S., something it no longer does. We had forces in Saudi Arabia. We no longer have that relationship.''

On the surface, watching stallions on King Abdullah's ranch during his trip to the Middle East last week, Bush the rancher and former oil man seemed in his comfort zone.

Little Comfort

The Saudis may give Bush little comfort: Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in Riyadh that more crude would be pumped only ``when the market justifies it.'' The minister noted that economies are still growing with oil higher than $90 a barrel and said his country wants to avoid ``cycles of volatility.''

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