Ambassador Robert Jordan came to the Tower Center to speak to students and faculty about U.S. relations in the Middle East on Monday.
As the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2001 to 2003, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, Jordan worked closely with President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to strengthen U.S.-Saudi ties and encourage Saudi accession to the World Trade Organization.
In his speech, Jordan primarily described Saudi Arabia’s relations with other Middle Eastern countries, most notably Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine and Turkey.
Some of the most pressing topics included Iran’s nuclear power program, Israeli-Palestinian relations, the rebound of the United Arab Eremite’s (UAE) economy after economic downfall and the attempt of many Middle Eastern countries to modernize their economies.
On the topic of Iran, Ambassador Jordan expressed the Middle East’s growing concern over Iran’s acquisition of nuclear power and the fears of armed-nuclear conflict.
Ambassador Jordan relayed the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s desires for stronger U.S. intervention on the issue, stressing that the matter has brought local countries together.
“Because of the threat of Iran, Israel and the Arab states have more in common against a common enemy, and there is some truth in that,” Jordan said. “But there also is a lot of truth in this long standing enmity between the two that they are never going to sing ‘‘kumbaya” together; they are never really going to become culturally together.”
The ambassador spoke of the U.S.’s efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with disappointment and pessimism, stating the “U.S. hasn’t done enough to aggressively seek a resolution” in the unsolvable conflict. He did, however, give “a lot of credit” to the Obama Administration for “trying in the early stages of his administration.”
In 2008, the UAE was crushed, like many other economies, as a result of the explosion of the “real-estate bubble.” Two years later, Abu Dhabi has found the path towards economic growth once again.
With the surge in development of resources, improvement in infrastructure—including an emerging new financial district modeled of the New York financial district—and commitment to improving education, especially for women, the UAE has managed to lead its neighbors in economic growth.
Along those lines, the ambassador described some of the Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand their economies and modernize their infrastructure. Jordan specifically mentioned King Abdullah’s University of Science and Technology. The university is being used as a model to “expand into further economic and educational zones,” and is meant to rival MIT in both research capacity and quality of professors.
The briefing was held by the John G. Tower Center for Political Studies, an institution housed by Dedman College. The center promotes the study and discussion of politics and international affairs, and engages students in public service through insightful teaching and hands-on research.
