Politics

حج السعودية إلى باكستان

Mar 25, 2014 Mai Yamani

لندن ــ على مدى السنوات القليلة الماضية، أصبحت المملكة العربية السعودية في تباعد متزايد عن الولايات المتحدة، التي وفرت لها الحماية ردحاً من الزمن. فقد رأت في دعم أميركا لخلع حسني مبارك من السلطة في مصر ــ وقبولها لحكومة الإخوان المسلمين لاحقا ــ خيانة لها. ثم جاء امتناع الرئيس الأميركي باراك أوباما عن فرض "خطه الأحمر" في سوريا، بعد إقدام نظام الرئيس بشار الأسد على استخدام الغاز السام ضد معارضيه. غير أن دعم أميركا الاتفاق المؤقت الأخير بشأن برنامج إيران النووي كان بمثابة القشة الأخيرة القاصمة.

الواقع أن ارتياب المملكة العربية السعودية المتزايد في الولايات المتحدة ليس بالشأن الضئيل الأهمية، لأن المملكة العربية السعودية كانت كلما استشعرت تهديداً لبقائها ــ وهي ترى في طموحات إيران الإقليمية تهديداً من هذا القبيل ــ تعتمد على قوة خارجية لحمايتها. ولكن إذا لم يعد بوسعها الاعتماد على الولايات المتحدة، فإلى أي وجهة قد تولي المملكة وجهها بحثاً عن القوة العسكرية الكافية؟

يبدو أن الإجابة تكمن في باكستان، البلد الذي تنظر إليه بقية العالم فترى كياناً يوشك أن يتحول إلى دولة فاشلة.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 5 Comments on this article

Sarfaraz Abbasi Oct 10, 2014

"Sunni Bomb"

If there is actual confirmation of terms like existence of 'Hindu bomb / Christian bomb / Jewish bomb / Communist bomb', only then this artificially hand-made term works.

'but also readiness for war against India (an obsession of Pakistani generals)'

The author needs to realize that she does not live either in Pakistan or India to learn the climate of 'Pakistan-phobia' infested Indian society as well as media. She rather needs to watch Indian news-channel, BJP party manifesto as well as newspaper----to have an idea about 'which generals on which side of the border are actually having obsession about who'
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Dan Adams Apr 5, 2014

I live in the ME but my, this is setting an awful precedent. Two crippled states linking up to fail. Its something out of Beckett.
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Paul A. Myers Mar 29, 2014

President Obama is in the middle of a subtle but significant reconfiguration of American foreign policy which puts stability forward as an overarching goal. With regard to the Middle East, such a shift in policy focus towards stability also means that the nationalist agendas of various allies and client states in the Middle East are not necessarily those of the US. In particular, America is making very clear with its insistence upon Israeli-Palestinian talks that the sub rosa irredentist objectives of Israel are no longer even tacitly accepted as goals of American policy. In a similar vein, the evolution of Saudi Arabia and Egypt and other Sunni states into a militant alliance of garrison states rooted in the past is not the direction desired by the US. Most likely the Israeli revanchist policies will ultimately fail as will the Saudi Arabian alliance of the reactionary regimes against the supposed threat of Iran. These policies as pursued by Israel and Saudi Arabia will contributed to heightened instability in the region, not less. Therefore they are going against the gain of American policy.

If the Americans succeed in integrating Iran back into the world economy as a more peaceful member, then Saudi Arabia will have created a garrison state with no apparent foe but its own fear of change and its hostility to the future. Something similar will occur to Israel if the foreign "threat" of Iran is removed from the regional calculus.
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j. von Hettlingen Mar 28, 2014

In light of the declining relations between Washington and Riyadh in recent months over US policy in the Middle East, President Obama is paying a visit to its long-standing ally and tries to define US interests differently to those of his Saudi host. There are disagreements between the two countries relating Obama's handling of Egypt, Iran, Syria and the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region. The Saudis claim the US were weak, as it resorts to diplomacy instead of military might to resolve the crisis in Syria and the nuclear dispute with Iran. Saudi Arabia felt further betrayed when it turned out that US and Iranian officials had for months been conducting secret negotiations in Oman, that helped pave the way to the interim deal in Geneva last November.
Saudi Arabia seems to be the country that has problems with its own self and with its neighbours. The Shia/Sunni divide reflects the power struggle between the Saudi Kingdom and the Islamic Republic of Iran over regional hegemony and has plunged Syria into a sectarian war, with a ripple effect felt in Iraq and Lebanon.
The vicious intra-Sunni schism between the Saudi Wahhabism and the Muslim Brotherhood's political Islam had led to a Saudi-backed military coup in Egypt, which toppled the elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, last summer and the brutal crackdown on members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The late Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud had once said: “All our problems come from the Muslim Brotherhood,” and argued that the group “has destroyed the Arab world.”
The former long-serving interior minister was seen as even more conservative than King Abdullah and personally committed to upholding strict religious traditions.
Another reason why Saudi Arabia wanted to get rid of Morsi, was that he reached out to Iran. In August 2012 Iran's Vice-President Hamid Baghai came to Cairo. A week later Morsi himself travelled to Iran to attend the non-aligned nations meeting hosted by Ahmadinejad. No Egyptian leader had set foot in Tehran since the mid-1970s. Diplomatic relations broke down after Cairo signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and received the Shah, who fled the Islamic Revolution. Iranian warships were allowed to pass through the Suez Canal in February 2012, a huge thorn in the Saudis' side.
That Saudi Arabia now strengthens its tie to Pakistan can been seen as a desperate attempt to forge alliance abroad. If Saudi Arabia is capable of "exporting" softpower, it is indeed the "Wahhabi teachings". If boys and young men in impoverished regions of Pakistan go to school, then they attend the madrassas, funded by Saudi Arabia, which fuel "the Islamic extremism and sectarian violence of the Taliban and others".
Pakistan is cash-strapped and won't hesitate to help train Syrian rebel groups and even provide Riyadh with nuclear weapons to deter an attack by Iran. Saudis' allies in the GCC are distancing themselves from Riyadh, because Dubai, Oman and Qatar want to maintain a good relationship with Iran.
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Marc Laventurier Mar 25, 2014

King Arthur: Consult the Book of Armaments.
Brother Maynard: Armaments, chapter two, verses nine through twenty-one.
Cleric: [reading] And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
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