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The Saudis are worried; they’re worried about Barack Obama’s sanctions strategy with Iran. This is reflected in the words of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who sat down with Bloomberg’s Jeffrey Goldberg this week:
“There’s no confidence in the Obama administration doing the right thing with Iran,” he told me, with a directness that would make Benjamin Netanyahu blush. “We’re really concerned — Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East countries — about this.”
It is quite something for a Saudi royal to state baldly that his country is part of a tacit alliance with Israel, but Saudi leaders, like Israel’s leaders, are frantic with worry that an overeager Obama will accede to Iran’s desire to become a threshold state, one whose nuclear program is so advanced that it would only need several weeks to assemble a deliverable weapon. Alwaleed, like Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, believes that Iran, in its ongoing negotiations with the world’s major powers, will pocket whatever sanctions relief it gets without committing to ending its nuclear program. “Why are they offering relief?” he asked. “Keep the pressure on. Sanctions are what brought about the negotiations to begin with! Why not keep the pressure up?”
Obama, Alwaleed says, is a man who is in desperate political straits and needs a victory — any victory — to right his presidency. “Obama is in so much of a rush to have a deal with Iran,” he said. “He wants anything. He’s so wounded. It’s very scary. Look, the 2014 elections are going to begin. Within two months they’re going to start campaigning. Thirty-nine members of his own party in the House have already moved away from him on Obamacare. That’s scary for him.” {emphasis ours}
The Saudis, who broke off diplomatic ties with the U.S. in the wake of the Obama administration’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood over al-Sisi in Egypt as well as the decision not to attack Syria, are likely more concerned about Obama’s policy with Iran than his support for the Brotherhood in Egypt or restraint in Syria. As Goldberg points out, Alwaleed may not be part of the Saudi Government but he is respected enough by the Royal family to practically speak on its behalf.
Alwaleed also said something to Goldberg that has been obvious to us here for quite a while:
“Look, Iran is a huge threat, historically speaking,” he said. “The Persian empire was always against the Muslim Arab empire, especially against the Sunnis. The threat is from Persia, not from Israel. This was a great empire ruling the whole neighborhood. I’ll tell you something — they are in Bahrain, they are in Iraq, they are in Syria, they are with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas, which is Sunni, in Gaza. They are intruding into these areas. King Abdullah of Jordan had a good statement on this — he said that a Shiite crescent begins from Iran, through Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and goes down to Palestine, to Hamas.”It’s important to remember that at the end of the day, the Muslim Brotherhood seeks the removal of the House of Saud. There is great contempt for the Saudis on the part of the Brotherhood despite the latter being the beneficiary of ungodly amounts of Saudi money. That does not mean the Brotherhood won’t turn on the source of that money; it will. The Saudis have funded the Brotherhood for at least two reasons.
- It allows the spread of Islam in non-Muslim lands.
- It keeps the Brotherhood occupied in areas outside Saudi Arabia (like throwing red meat to a tiger).
As we wrote previously, every Obama administration policy as supported the Muslim Brotherhood. In Egypt, the decision not to support al-Sisi after Mursi’s overthrow is beyond transparent. In Syria, the decision not to attack Assad likely had more to do with the overwhelming public opinion against such an attack. It’s true that Obama has demonstrated little to no regard for the will of the people but the opposition to a strike in Syria was such that it would have made a lopsided poll blush.
Now, with Obama choosing not to act in Syria, which is a government supported by Iran, coupled with his warming up to Iran via lifting sanctions, how can this all be perceived as a pro-Muslim Brotherhood position?
Here are two things that can be determined with a reasonable degree of certainty:
- The Brotherhood seeks to overthrow the Saudi Royal family.
- Barack Obama despises Israel.
Answer: Israel and Saudi Arabia.
If one accepts the premise that the Brotherhood ultimately wants to defeat the Saudis, would it not consider doing so via Iran if it could?
Earlier this week, Alwaleed spoke about Obama with another Bloomberg reporter, Erik Schatzker.
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