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| "No winner and no loser" image from www.aljazeera.net |
The White
House readout of U.S. President Barack Obama’s call with King Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia:
President Obama spoke by
phone today (July 12) with King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi
Arabia.
The President relayed his
warm wishes to the King on the occasion of Ramadan.
The leaders reaffirmed the
strong and enduring partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia and
discussed regional issues of mutual interest.
The President and the King
shared their perspectives on the situation in Syria and expressed their strong
concerns about the impact of the conflict on the region.
The President emphasized
the United States’ continued commitment to provide support to the Syrian
Opposition Coalition and the Supreme Military Council to strengthen the
opposition.
The President and King
also exchanged views on recent developments in Egypt.
They agreed that the
United States and Saudi Arabia have a shared interest in supporting Egypt’s
stability.
The President expressed
his serious concern about the violence in Egypt and underscored the urgent need
for an inclusive political process that will enable an early return to a
democratically elected civilian government in Egypt.
The leaders pledged to
continue close consultations between their two governments.
Separately, Tariq Alhomayed, the former editor-in-chief
of Saudi Arabia’s leading daily Asharq
Alawsat, writes
today of Obama seeming like a president of Lebanon:
A watcher of the U.S. president’s approach to our
regional files does not perceive Barack Obama as leader of the world’s most
powerful nation, but as the president of Lebanon, where the mantra is “no
winner and no loser.”
In Egypt, the Obama Administration is still at a loss
whether to describe the June 30 “corrective movement” as a military coup or a response
to popular demands, despite saying Mohamed Morsi’s government “wasn’t a
democratic rule.”
While confirming plans to send four shiny F-16
fighter jets to Egypt’s military, the Obama Administration formally puts U.S.
aid to Cairo under review. It urges the Muslim Brotherhood to renounce violence
and at the same time warns the interim leadership against Brotherhood arrests.
Worse still, the Obama Administration calls for
Morsi’s release just as the White House says, “We’re not taking sides in Egypt.”
Can you imagine a worse muddle?
As concerns Syria, the fumbles are greater, more
serious and profound.
Obama had asked all sides to wait for his reelection
campaign to end, but nothing changed thereafter.
He did zilch despite Bashar al-Assad forces killing
more than 100,000 Syrians and disregarding his “game-changer” threat that
moving or using chemical weapons would cross a “red line” and “change my
calculus.”
When Iran and Hezbollah intervened in Syria to defend
Assad, Obama remained passive.
And after he undertook to arm Syrian rebels, he
failed to deliver.
His administration cites broad-based concerns the
weapons could fall into wrong hands of hardline Islamists. Strangely, the
administration has no such concerns about Egypt’s hardline Islamists, despite
the Egyptian Army being targeted in Sinai by terrorists loyal to the
Brotherhood.
The Obama Administration’s fumbling and dithering is
countless.
The president’s rash exit from Iraq turned it into an
Iranian springboard to attack Syrians and defend Assad through the Baghdad
government and armed Shiite groups.
Also we’re now into the fallouts from the planned
U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, not to mention American heedlessness to
Libya.
President Obama doesn’t want to do anything anywhere,
despite all the security threats, risks to U.S. political interests and the
violations of laws and principles such as in Syria.
The Obama Administration has also disconcerted other
regions. European countries are demanding that Washington immediately stop its
eavesdropping on European Union officials and diplomats.
There too, Obama is trying to circumvent the issue à la Libanaise – “no
winner and no loser.”
Obama has the earmarks of a president of Lebanon,
instead of the president of the most powerful nation on earth.
