(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Asking some questions from Ahmad Moussali, Professor at the American University of Beirut about why the US would want to overlook continual crimes against humanity by Saudi Arabia and unconditionally support what it considers a terrorist regime while rhetorically fighting a war on terror. Following is a transcript of this interview.
Question: Some have said that the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia is strained - What is your perspective and in the context of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) in which Jordan and Morocco have been invited, led by Saudi Arabia?
Ahmad Moussali: I think one should see the whole thing from a dual political perspective and not only from an internal political situation to understand it, although both are important.
What happened when the Egyptian revolution took place is that the US found that the continuation of President [Hosni] Mubarak was a liability and so they pushed the army not to support Mubarak and this unnerved the Saudis and they were afraid of another movement within the PGCC that would lead to a similar outcome and we are talking primarily about Saudi Arabia itself. So Tunisia, Egypt and also the issue of Libya is linked.
I think Libya was supposed to stop the rise of revolutions it was a counter revolution act. Now today Libya is posited somehow as the end of what we are calling 'the Arab spring'. Yemen also falls within that structure. The US and Saudi Arabia agree on a lot of things, but disagree on many others: the problem is that the Saudis want to propagate their Wahabiism.
The US finds that Wahabiism is a source of terrorism like al-Qaeda and similar movements.
The fear now, for both of them, is that Yemen will turn into a baseless government or a place without a government where a revolutionary movement could rise such as the Houthis or al-Qaeda or southern nationalists or groups to the north. The Saudis are very afraid that the tribal structure is becoming very fragile not only in Yemen, but a theme that could spread into Saudi Arabia.
Their move into Bahrain is to send a very clear message that these countries should not be changed and this could be seen as the beginning of a counter-revolution and this is why they wanted to absorb Jordan and Morocco and to show that kings or emirs are the best alternative to new revolutions where they would be supported by money and fall within that regime.
Question: Press TV have shown in their reports rights violations that have been continuing in Saudi Arabia for quite some time and many are asking how the US can turn a blind eye to these violations occurring in the kingdom.
At the same time, in countries around Saudi Arabia, the people are going against the regimes. This is basically an oil for military aid arrangement that the US and Saudi Arabia have had for the past six decades - that's not going to fall apart. So what position would that put the US? Can you name one country where this will backfire in terms of the US and Saudi Arabia?
Ahmad Moussali: The link between Saudi Arabia and the US is historic from the very beginning of announcing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. And even before when it was the Kingdom of Nejd and Hijaz. The problem is that the US through Saudi Arabia is controlling the Arabian Peninsula and the oil and the through that the Persian Gulf, at least, this is the perspective.
Saudi Arabia is posited against Iran. So the US in one way uses a realist approach when it comes to dealing with international affairs and they give lip service to human rights and democracy. This we can see in Bahrain; this we can see in Saudi Arabia; this we can see in Palestine; and also by what the Americans did in Guantanamo; what they did in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, too. And consequently I don't think one should be surprised by the rhetorical positions of the US - they talk about democracy, but they don't want democracy in the Arab and Islamic world.
The US is trying to ride the wave of these revolutions. They are all popular uprisings and their demand is to bring about an Islamic kind of government. The US is strategizing, better than to stand against these people we should show as if we are helping them.
Remember that Europe or the G8 decided to provide 40 billion dollars to Egypt and Tunisia in order to be able to manipulate their foreign policy and internal policy vis e vis the Arab-Israeli conflict, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Twenty billion of that is paid by the PGCC and Qatar in particular is paying 10 billion dollars of that. So what is happening is that since the revolutions took place they are giving lip service that - we are with it.
Libya is going through civil war and there is no end; the forces are exhausted; we may see some kind of division of Libya and I think Gaddafi is going to restate. And the other state would consist of a base of the US, which will serve for its Afro-command from where it will launch its control of Africa seeking new natural resources.
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