Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is using its political clout and financial power to draw regional allies into a united front against perceived threats from Iran and popular discontent with Arab autocrats.
Saudi rulers, alarmed by shifts in US policy in response to the toppling of long-time ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and protests roiling Bahrain, Oman and Yemen in the kingdom’s own Gulf backyard, are vigorously pushing back.
“Saudi Arabia is using its excess budget wealth to silence the revolutions or shape their outcomes,” said London-based Saudi researcher and author Madawi al-Rasheed.
Riyadh has pledged $4 billion in aid to Egypt, throwing a lifeline to new rulers struggling with the economic impact of the anti-Mubarak unrest. It was also instrumental in a $20 billion handout to Bahrain and Oman for job-creating projects.
Saudi Arabia shares US fears that Iran wants nuclear arms and has struggled to adjust to rising Iranian regional influence since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq produced a Shia-led government in Baghdad. It also worries about popular unrest. “The kingdom is very concerned about the revolutionary wave. They don’t want the waves to reach the shores of the Gulf,” said Saudi political analyst Khalid al-Dakhil.
The Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), grouping six Sunni-ruled oil producers, is considering letting Jordan and Morocco join, adding two more monarchies to a bloc that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
A good advice for the land of terrifying contradictions otherwise known as
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is to unite muslims instead dividing, trust your own people and give them freedom, get out of this dicotomy and Iran phobia. Cooperate with each other instead and work for the real prosperity of all the people worldwide.
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