Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Oberwetter spoke to the SMU College Republicans on Wednesday, Oct. 12 in the Varsity in Hughes-Trigg.
Prior to serving as ambassador, Oberwetter served as press secretary for George H.W. Bush and special assistant to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Apart from his diplomatic work, Oberwetter served as senior vice president of Hunt Oil Co. in Dallas, where he now resides with his wife. He was selected in 2008 to be president of the Dallas Regional Chamber, an organization he still leads today.
Oberwetter opened with his own personal history and then went into specifics in his field. He was anxious and willing to take on questions on a wide range of subjects that the students had.
When asked his opinion on Obama’s policy for Saudi Arabia, Oberwetter expressed that he’s not unpleased with Obama’s as well as other political leaders’ actions thus far regarding the country.
“I would never have thought I would say this about Hillary [Clinton], but I think she’s performing pretty darn well,” he said. “I think the president is performing pretty darn well in that area given the cards that are being dealt.”
Considering how many other issues President Obama has to deal with between conflicts in Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Israel, Palestine and Jordan, Oberwetter is impressed with his work with regard to Saudi Arabia so far.
Oberwetter addressed the ever-present and ever-controversial Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“It has been used for years to keep governments in place and to turn the attention of their people on another country,” Oberwetter said. “How do you get peace in the Middle East?”
His suggestion in terms of a solution for the conflict in the two countries would be to make two states, a solution that George W. Bush first proposed. However, Oberwetter says there are no promises with this conflict in the Middle East.
Oberwetter explained that he started out as the leader of a Young Republicans Club in college. At that time, however, he never imagined himself to be where he is today.
“I’ve really been looking forward to coming to SMU and talking to the Young Republicans,” Oberwetter said when he first sat down to speak. “I used to be one.”
Before he was appointed as an ambassador, Oberwetter was asked to go to the White House for an event for Yemen, where he expected to talk only to the human resources director. When they sat down, however, the director said to him, “The president will be with you shortly.”
This caught him by surprise and after spending time in the Oval Office and having several meetings, Oberwetter ended up as the United States ambassador for Saudi Arabia, where he served from February 2004 to mid-2007.
His story dictates how a seemingly non-career person such as himself could one day hold a highly ranked position — even an ambassador for the United States.
“I never applied for a job in the administration,” Oberwetter said. “It was just the happenstance of my having been with a company who was doing business on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. You just never know.”
