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AUG 18 1992

His Excellency Saud Al-Faisal
Managing Director
National Commission for Wildlife   Conservation and Development
P.O. Box 61681
Riyadh 11575
Saudi Arabia

Your Excellency:

Your Ambassador, Excellency Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, has recently forwarded to me your letter together with an English translation. I am happy to have this opportunity to respond to you personally, and to explain the unfortunate circumstances that led me to conclude, regretfully, that the Smithsonian Institution could not proceed with the proffered contract to manage the Taif Wildlife Research Center and Nazahat Al Said Wildlife Protected Area. I am fully aware that both sides had been negotiating this contract in good faith. Had conditions remained the same for the Smithsonian as they were at the time initial discussions were held, it might have been possible for the Smithsonian Institution and the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development of Saudi Arabia to enter into a mutually beneficial cooperative relationship.

However, during the last several years while your discussions with our National Zoological Park were going on, the Smithsonian as a whole has been affected by a progressive and increasingly severe budget deficit problem. The Institution, as you may know, is not a federal agency, but rather a federally-funded trust institution. It depends upon both federal appropriations and private funds, and the short-fall affects both of the sources. These deficits are compelling us to cancel programs and eliminate staff positions. We are under a directive from the Congress of the United States, which provides us with our federal appropriation, to review carefully our program activities in terms of the basic  mission and core responsibilities. At this time, then, we find it impossible to divert senior management resources to a new project such as the management of the research center and protected area in Saudi Arabia, when so many of our other basic functions are under severe stress.