It is dejavu of year 1952 in Middle East again, when Egyptian Army
Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew the British colonial stooge, King
Faruk, and set forth to unite all Arabs as one state called the United
Arab Republic. He whipped up Arab nationalism and became the idol of all
Arabs on the streets, but the Arab kings and emirs shunned him. They
didn’t want to share their oil riches with their citizens as popular
leaders; they wanted to keep all the riches to themselves.
They still rule by royal decree, and the late King Saud didn’t even bother to use courts to kill opponents. He signed execution royal decrees, and they were taken straight to firing squads! Now Saudi king Salman rushed to Washington as soon as news reported that Baraq Obama had the votes in the U.S. Congress to pass the U.S.-Iran Nuclear Deal. He certainly didn’t come here to thank Obama!
The Arab Springs of 2011 are still going on in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Europe has been flooded with refugees, and thousands still cross the Mediterranean daily while hundreds of others are drowning trying. The U.S., Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey each support different groups in the ongoing conflicts in the aforesaid countries. On top of the slaughter going on in the rebel battlefields, the truck-bombs, the kidnapping, the beheading, and the aerial bombing by the U.S. in Syria and Iraq, by Turkey in Syria, Iraq, and Kurdistan, and by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, the Saudis now have another nightmare – after al Baghdadi’s decision to break away from Saudi control and establish his own Islamic State: The United Nations Sanctions on Iran have already been lifted, and the U.S. lifting of sanctions will soon follow. With the sanction hand-cuffs off, Iran would certainly pack a stronger politico-military punch! Given the fact that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are still the only dynastic regimes in the planet – courtesy of U.S. protection, a powerful democracy across the Persian Gulf is a bad omen for them!
The U.S. – Iran Agreement on its nuclear program will free $ billions of Iranian assets that have been blocked by the sanctions, and let Iran export more oil. That means more resources to further increase its already impressive military. Russia is already shipping to Iran upgraded S-300 anti-aircraft batteries, and Iran tested recently a new intermediate missile with a range of 500 miles! Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak lamented recently Israel’s failure to bomb Iran before the missiles were delivered, and a Saudi retired Army General has been in consultation with the Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry to discuss a possible Saudi-Israeli cooperation or a military alliance against Iran – according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Fact-of-matter? The Saudis look for military allies everywhere, even in Israel where its late prime minister Monahem Begin called them during his tenure: “The 3.000 princess and princesses that drink the blood of the Saudi people,” the oil wealth. Hostility between Israel and Saudi Arabia has been ongoing since 1948, but now it is all forgotten because the Saudis are in “survival mode!”
It was also reported yesterday that dozens of UAE troops as well as some Bahrain troops were killed in Yemen, and that reveals that Saudi Arabia fully controls the Gulf Emirates and uses their armies as proxies and subordinate allies. Plus Egyptian forces are involved in Yemen, as an Egypt’s General Sissi thank you to Saudi Arabia who has pumping $ billions into Egypt to prevent Sissi’s dictatorship from collapsing – about 100 $ billions since his overthrow of Mohammed Morsi. Recently Saudi Arabia gave Sudan’s president Omar Bashir $ 5 billions in aid, with more to come, Bashir promised to help Saudi Arabia in Yemen too. A Saudi Arabia request to Pakistan to deploy its troops in Yemen was voted down overwhelmingly by the Pakistani Parliament. Also, Saudi Arabia now supports the creation of a Kurdish state, which means it is at odds with Turkey, and it probably tries to seduce the Kurds into a guerrilla warfare against Iran for autonomy in Western Iran that has a sizable Kurdish population.
Would Saudi Arabia succeed to build an Arab Empire, or an Arabic Federation of States, under its control – as Gamal Abdel Nasser came close to build in 1953? No! Nasser became an idol or Arabs as a their liberator from colonialism and Israel. He was admired by all Arabs almost as much as Prophet Mohammed was, and hundreds of thousands of Arabs massed across all Arab capitals to swear allegiance to his leadership. Pan-Arabism seemed then close to become a reality at that time, but Western powers sabotaged all his efforts to save the Gulf monarchs and emirs. There is no Pan-Arabism ideal anywhere in Middle East today; there is only a fratricidal slaughter between Sunni and Shiite Arabs!
The conflicts across the Muslim world, however, are not about Islam; they are about the proverbial “Arab haves, and Arab have nots,” with the “haves” still controlling the wealth, and with the “have nots” living in abject poverty. Let’s not forget that the spark of Arab Springs started against the wealthy and crook Tunisian president Ben Ali who escaped to Saudi Arabia – and lives there a happily thereafter!
Now the Saudi royals are worrying that the lift of the Iranian Sanction would embolden Iran to assist more “the have nots” against the “haves” – the kings and the princesses! The royals have survived the global spread of democracy under U.S. military protection for more than half a century. Now the “have nots” have turned Middle East up-side down, and the royals feel their survival is at stake! They view Iran as a democratic Damoclean sword rising over their heads.
Nikos Retsos, retired professor
They still rule by royal decree, and the late King Saud didn’t even bother to use courts to kill opponents. He signed execution royal decrees, and they were taken straight to firing squads! Now Saudi king Salman rushed to Washington as soon as news reported that Baraq Obama had the votes in the U.S. Congress to pass the U.S.-Iran Nuclear Deal. He certainly didn’t come here to thank Obama!
The Arab Springs of 2011 are still going on in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Europe has been flooded with refugees, and thousands still cross the Mediterranean daily while hundreds of others are drowning trying. The U.S., Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey each support different groups in the ongoing conflicts in the aforesaid countries. On top of the slaughter going on in the rebel battlefields, the truck-bombs, the kidnapping, the beheading, and the aerial bombing by the U.S. in Syria and Iraq, by Turkey in Syria, Iraq, and Kurdistan, and by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, the Saudis now have another nightmare – after al Baghdadi’s decision to break away from Saudi control and establish his own Islamic State: The United Nations Sanctions on Iran have already been lifted, and the U.S. lifting of sanctions will soon follow. With the sanction hand-cuffs off, Iran would certainly pack a stronger politico-military punch! Given the fact that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are still the only dynastic regimes in the planet – courtesy of U.S. protection, a powerful democracy across the Persian Gulf is a bad omen for them!
The U.S. – Iran Agreement on its nuclear program will free $ billions of Iranian assets that have been blocked by the sanctions, and let Iran export more oil. That means more resources to further increase its already impressive military. Russia is already shipping to Iran upgraded S-300 anti-aircraft batteries, and Iran tested recently a new intermediate missile with a range of 500 miles! Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak lamented recently Israel’s failure to bomb Iran before the missiles were delivered, and a Saudi retired Army General has been in consultation with the Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry to discuss a possible Saudi-Israeli cooperation or a military alliance against Iran – according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Fact-of-matter? The Saudis look for military allies everywhere, even in Israel where its late prime minister Monahem Begin called them during his tenure: “The 3.000 princess and princesses that drink the blood of the Saudi people,” the oil wealth. Hostility between Israel and Saudi Arabia has been ongoing since 1948, but now it is all forgotten because the Saudis are in “survival mode!”
It was also reported yesterday that dozens of UAE troops as well as some Bahrain troops were killed in Yemen, and that reveals that Saudi Arabia fully controls the Gulf Emirates and uses their armies as proxies and subordinate allies. Plus Egyptian forces are involved in Yemen, as an Egypt’s General Sissi thank you to Saudi Arabia who has pumping $ billions into Egypt to prevent Sissi’s dictatorship from collapsing – about 100 $ billions since his overthrow of Mohammed Morsi. Recently Saudi Arabia gave Sudan’s president Omar Bashir $ 5 billions in aid, with more to come, Bashir promised to help Saudi Arabia in Yemen too. A Saudi Arabia request to Pakistan to deploy its troops in Yemen was voted down overwhelmingly by the Pakistani Parliament. Also, Saudi Arabia now supports the creation of a Kurdish state, which means it is at odds with Turkey, and it probably tries to seduce the Kurds into a guerrilla warfare against Iran for autonomy in Western Iran that has a sizable Kurdish population.
Would Saudi Arabia succeed to build an Arab Empire, or an Arabic Federation of States, under its control – as Gamal Abdel Nasser came close to build in 1953? No! Nasser became an idol or Arabs as a their liberator from colonialism and Israel. He was admired by all Arabs almost as much as Prophet Mohammed was, and hundreds of thousands of Arabs massed across all Arab capitals to swear allegiance to his leadership. Pan-Arabism seemed then close to become a reality at that time, but Western powers sabotaged all his efforts to save the Gulf monarchs and emirs. There is no Pan-Arabism ideal anywhere in Middle East today; there is only a fratricidal slaughter between Sunni and Shiite Arabs!
The conflicts across the Muslim world, however, are not about Islam; they are about the proverbial “Arab haves, and Arab have nots,” with the “haves” still controlling the wealth, and with the “have nots” living in abject poverty. Let’s not forget that the spark of Arab Springs started against the wealthy and crook Tunisian president Ben Ali who escaped to Saudi Arabia – and lives there a happily thereafter!
Now the Saudi royals are worrying that the lift of the Iranian Sanction would embolden Iran to assist more “the have nots” against the “haves” – the kings and the princesses! The royals have survived the global spread of democracy under U.S. military protection for more than half a century. Now the “have nots” have turned Middle East up-side down, and the royals feel their survival is at stake! They view Iran as a democratic Damoclean sword rising over their heads.
Nikos Retsos, retired professor
No comments:
Post a Comment