President Obama — more headache from Saudi Arabia than Syria’s Assad?
[Black Star News Editorial]
Saudi Arabia has escalated its attacks with a bizarre and vicious personal frontal against President Barack Obama and the United States, through an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal.
The Saudis probably didn’t just wake up and discover the commentary in The Journal.
The Saudis are determined to derail peace negotiations slated for November to end Syria’s bloody war. Washington, London, Moscow and other nations, are pushing for the talks.
Secretary of State John Kerry is participating in London groundwork.
The push for peace follows the U.S.- and Russia deal that got Bashar Assad to agree to have all the 1,000 tons of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal destroyed.
Saudi Arabia is alarmed by this encouraging news.
There were reports several weeks ago that the Saudis may have actually supplied chemical weapons to Syrian rebels to use against civilians then blame the Bashar Assad regime to provoke U.S. attack on Syria. These reports need to be investigated, including by major newspapers with resources such as The Wall Street Journal, whose news pages operates independently of the editorial page, and are exceptionally good.
The Wall Street Journal editorial quotes Prince Turki al Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to the U.S. saying: “The current charade of international control over Bashar’s chemical arsenal….would be funny if it were not so blatantly perfidious, and designed not only to give Mr. Obama an opportunity to back down, but also to help Assad butcher his people.”
The Journal’s editorial page observes: “It’s a rare occasion when a Saudi royal has the moral standing to lecture an American President, but this was one of them.”
Actually this is not one of them; there will not be such an occasion for a long time.
The Saudis have no moral authority to lecture any nation. Even Iran holds Presidential elections that are relatively competitive, even though candidates are vetted. When is the last time Saudi Arabia held elections? Where are the women who are in charge of anything in Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia is a repressive dictatorship run by men. Women have no rights and don’t serve in elective office. In Saudi Arabia convicts are still beheaded in the country while thieves have their hands cut off. When Jihadists introduced this practise in Mali, before they were routed, it was referred to as “barbaric.” Not so in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis think they can still blackmail Obama into bombing Syria and then attacking Iran. The Saudi king was reportedly “angry” that the U.S. had accepted Iran’s overtures for talks without consulting the oil-rich dictatorship.
The audacity of oil.
The Saudis continue to arm Syria rebels even though most media now openly report their widespread atrocities against civilians including acts of bestiality.
The Saudis issued not-so-veiled threats through The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page: that since the U.S. won’t arm the Syria rebels the Saudis may now supply them with anti-aircraft missiles that could eventually be used to shoot down civilians planes. If this happens and the weapons are traced to Saudi Arabia, certainly there would have to be consequences.
The Journal’s editorial, perhaps passing off Saudi thinking, notes that since the U.S. doesn’t seem inclined to bomb Iran, the Saudis may have to develop their own nuclear weapons arsenal. Not even The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page would be able to sell that project.
The Saudi monarchy must know that it can’t buy off popular discontent perpetually. It certainly cannot defend itself without the United States.
Yet the Saudis have decided to arrogantly lecture and insult President Obama and the United States.
The march towards peace in Syria must continue. The Saudis must not engineer some Machiavellian scheme, or actions, in a desperate attempt to derail the peace process.
Saudi Arabia’s recent actions and statements suggest that the kingdom is the enemy of peace in the region.
