Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabian Prince Turki al-Faisal, former intelligence chief and former ambassador to Washington as well as the brother of current Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, strongly criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Turki argued that Saudi Arabia deserves a seat at the negotiating table for the Iran nuclear talks. "It's important for us to sit down at the same table... We have been absent." The UN Security Council's five permanent members -- Britain, France, the United States, Russia, China -- and Germany have been responsible for the nuclear negotiations.
On Syria, Turki said his government is frustrated with the Obama administration's lack of aggression toward the Syria crisis, citing the U.S. decision not to arm the Syrian rebels and Obama's failure to launch the proposed military strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last summer.
Despite these "differences between us and the U.S.," Turki acknowledged that "We have a huge defense and security agreement with the United States, forestalling terrorist attacks. That's ongoing without any problems."
[Wall Street Journal]
