Washington (AFP) - The West's
policies on Iran and Syria are a "dangerous gamble" and Saudi Arabia is
prepared to act on its own to safeguard security in the region, a top
Saudi diplomat said.
"We
believe that many of the West’s policies on both Iran and Syria risk
the stability and security of the Middle East," the Saudi ambassador to
Britain, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, wrote in a commentary
in the New York Times.
"This is a dangerous gamble, about which we cannot remain silent, and will not stand idly by," he wrote.
The
bluntly-worded warning was the latest in a series of public statements
by senior Saudi figures expressing displeasure with US and Western
diplomatic initiatives towards Syria and Iran.
Until recently, Saudi leaders rarely voiced public criticism of their Western allies in a decades-long partnership.
But
Washington's decision to pull back from military action in Syria and
its backing for an interim nuclear deal with Iran has dismayed the
oil-rich Saudi kingdom, which views Tehran as a dangerous regional
rival.
Citing Iran's backing
for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, he said "rather than
challenging the Syrian and Iranian governments, some of our Western
partners have refused to take much-needed action against them.
"The
West has allowed one regime to survive and the other to continue its
program for uranium enrichment, with all the consequent dangers of
weaponization," he wrote.
Diplomatic talks with Iran may "dilute" the West's will to confront both Damascus and Tehran, he said.
"What price is 'peace' though, when it is made with such regimes?"
s a result, Saudi Arabia "has no
choice but to become more assertive in international affairs: more
determined than ever to stand up for the genuine stability our region so
desperately needs."
The Gulf
monarchy had "global responsibilities," both political and economic, and
he said: "We will act to fulfill these responsibilities, with or
without the support of our Western partners."
In
a thinly veiled jab at US President Barack Obama, the Saudi ambassador
said that "for all their talk of 'red lines,' when it counted, our
partners have seemed all too ready to concede our safety and risk our
region’s stability."
Obama had
used the term "red lines" to warn Syria's regime against using chemical
weapons. After the regime was accused of firing chemical weapons, Obama
threatened punitive military strikes. But in the end he pursued a
diplomatic agreement in which Damascus promised to give up its lethal
arsenal of chemical agents.
The Saudi ambassador slammed the
West for its reluctance to offer decisive help to Syrian rebels, vowing
to continue support for the Free Syrian Army and the "Syrian
opposition."
Acknowledging the
threat of Al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria, he argued the best way to
counter the rise of extremists among the rebels was to support the
"champions of moderation."
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