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| File picture of U.S. President Barack Obama and Saudi King Abdullah |
By Saudi
media star Jamal Khashoggi, writing for al-Hayat
There
are many reasons for the Saudi-U.S. crackup.
The
breach is mostly over Syria, where U.S. doublespeak has repeatedly been used to
hide negativity. Incessant American statements denouncing the Assad regime are
totally irreconcilable with happenings on the ground.
What
infuriated the Saudis, who want a quick end to the Syria crisis, is what they
believe to be America’s laid-back and indifferent attitude liable to prolong
the crisis regardless of its consequences and its spillovers into regional
countries.
The
most conspicuous inconsistency in the American position is in the matter of
arming the opposition.
America
covertly bumps heads with its Saudi ally over the latter’s desire to raise the
quality of arms supplied to the Syrian opposition, and even prevents its Saudi
ally from delivering quality weapons by invoking bilateral arms sales
agreements banning such transfers to a third party. At the same time,
the U.S. does nothing about the shipments of Russian arms to the Syrian regime
via Iran and Iraq.
The
only time Washington intervened was to back Israel’s objection to Russia
delivering game changing S-300 air defense systems to Syria.
The
U.S. did not even try to thwart the participation in the Syria war of tens of
thousands of Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militiamen although Washington has
ample details about the role Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard and its Commander
General Qasim Suleimani are playing in the war.
Unquestionably,
the Americans’ answers – such as they cannot shut out Hezbollah or Iran’s
Revolutionary Guard from Syria – are far from having convinced Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh
is fully familiar with every aspect of America’s influence in Iraq, which has
become the primary conduit for Iranian arm shipments and volunteers to Syria.
Israel
did not hesitate to hit Hezbollah and Revolutionary Guard targets inside Syria
when she felt they threatened her national security.
It
did so without Syria or any of its allies reacting. If Israel can do this, so
can America -- especially that Jordan paved the way for Washington, having
offered the Obama Administration the chance to use Jordanian bases to deploy its
armed drones against Syrian regime targets.
The
U.S. Administration declined the Jordanian offer, which was repeated on several
occasions in coordination with the Saudis, according to an informed source.
Paradoxically,
the U.S. fully concurs with Saudi Arabia that the biggest threat to the
security of the Arabian Peninsula comes from al-Qaeda, which is already active
in Yemen. Both Washington and Riyadh are working hand-in-hand to fight it.
But
at the same time, Washington is indifferent to the threat posed by al-Qaeda in
Syria, which mushroomed with the arrival there of the original version of the
terrorist group – namely, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),
which Saudi Arabia perceives as a serious menace to her security. And so do
Jordan and Turkey.
By
sinking roots in Syria, ISIL, which is also known by its Arabic acronym DAESH, would
have set up a network of human ballistic missiles there capable of reaching all
regional countries.
It
would be in a position to send suicides to all regional cities.
The
group has already moved against the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government by
sending suicide car-bombers to Erbil in retaliation to KRG President Masoud Barzani’s
avowed readiness to help Syria’s Kurds against terrorists in Syria’s north.
The
Erbil bombings shocked regional capitals particularly that the enclave was calm
for years and has a strong security network.
Experts
claim that intercepting a surface-to-surface missile with a network of Patriots
is easier than intercepting a lone, cross-border suicide who gets his
explosives delivered to him via another route. Once the suicide receives his
explosives the chance of foiling his terrorist bombing becomes negligible.
By
nesting in northern Syria and welcoming foreign fighters, DAESH will become a
magnet for young Saudis outraged by the abuses in Syria.
Such
young Saudis have been swayed by calls for Jihad still ringing across the
Kingdom, but mostly underground.
Estimates
putting the number of Saudi “mujahideen” in Syria at 4,000 are probably
inflated, as happened earlier in Afghanistan and Bosnia. But even if the
figure were one-fourth of the estimate, the number is substantial enough to
reinvigorate al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia after the Kingdom breathed a sigh of
relief when its security forces succeeded in stamping out its activities.
Riyadh
still has reason for concern. Young Saudis in Syria deliberately conceal their
true numbers and shun the media.
They
do not emulate al-Qaeda, which is always keen to boost its recruitment
campaigns by uploading propaganda videos about the heroism of its members on
YouTube.
One
expert in Syria who works for the United Nations puts it this way: “You see
video clips of Chechens or Libyans much more than of Saudis. But they are by
far the more numerous. I believe the Saudis constitute the third largest group
of fighters in Syria after the Jordanians and Palestinians. Their shunning the
media is worrying.”
This
is probably because they know fighting in Syria violates their government’s
instructions. They also realize Saudi security is aware as to who left the
country to fight in Syria and will surely apprehend the lot on their return.
Al-Qaeda
in turn knows this very well and exploits the fact to build a recruitment
reservoir for future underground action in the post-Syria stage. Al-Qaeda-watchers
know there is always a post-Syria, post-Afghanistan and post-Iraq.
All
these Saudi concerns won’t dissipate except with a settlement of the Syria
crisis that ends the war that is currently serving as fertile ground for
al-Qaeda and Iran to spread their respective influences, each in its own way
and in keeping with its own purposes.
And although neither al-Qaeda nor Iran
is a friend of Saudi Arabia, recent leaks in the American press reveal the
Obama Administration is not only unconcerned, but wants the Syria crisis to
persist.
This
is bound to deepen the Saudi American rift.
The
hurtful surprise came in a recent New York Times quoting White House
Chief of Staff Denis McDonough as questioning how much it was in America’s
interest to tamp down the violence in Syria.
He
argued the status quo in Syria could keep Iran pinned down for years.
In
later discussions, McDonough suggested a fight in Syria between Hezbollah and al-Qaeda would work to America’s advantage.
His
words evoke memories of “imperialist” statements made in the 1950s when the
interests of arms dealers and oil companies determined American foreign policy
with total disregard of peoples’ rights and interests.
We
are not angels ourselves, but we cannot possibly be as wicked.
The
price of such a policy will be paid by the Syrian people and by the whole
region. The war between al-Qaeda and Hezbollah will drag in the region’s
countries and armies.
U.S.
President Obama considers U.S. health care reform more important than what he
dubbed Syria’s inferno.
However,
for us Saudis, Syria could be our heaven or our inferno.
So
let us do something, albeit alone.
No
matter what the cost turns out to be today, it would surely be less than what
we would have to pay in three of four years.
