Elias Akleh

The Middle Eastern region has a central geopolitical and economic importance. A united Arab world could become the major global power. Before leaving the region after WWII, Britain made sure to create two complimentary, although seemingly contradictory, terrorist entities in the region; Zionist Israel in Palestine and Wahhabi Saudi Arabia in the Arabian Peninsula. The main job of these two entities is to spread terror and cause wars in the region to keep it divided and weak. Unknowingly to the Saudi family their kingdom is also planned for division.

It must be clearly and loudly declared that the Saudi ruling family follows an anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, pro-Zionist, terror-sponsored, tyrannical, suppressive, ruthless, authoritarian, and treacherous absolute monarchy. The Saudi monarchy was established on betrayal, chauvinism, elitism, and discrimination.

Al Saud dynasty started with its founder Muhammad bin Saud, who in 1744 joined forces with Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabi ideology; a religiously extremist movement, to establish the first Saudi State. This state was destroyed by the Ottomans in 1818. A second Saudi State was established in 1824 by Turki ibn Abdulla but was also destroyed in 1891 by Ottoman backed Al Rashid family.

In 1902 Abdul Aziz ibn Saud founded the Ikhwan (the Brethren); a Wahhabi religious vicious cut throat militia worse than today’s ISIS. They used to raid other tribes; enemies of ibn Saud, and behead every male including children and did not hesitate to kill women also. The Ikhwan played a significant role in the defeat of Al Rashid; ibn Saud’s main rival, and by 1928 they fostered ibn Saud’s rule in most of the central parts of Arabian Peninsula. The Ikhwan gained much power and ibn Saud felt threatened, so he massacred all their leaders in the Battle of Sabilla in 1930.

Ibn Saud entered into a treaty with the British in December 1915; the Treaty of Darin, which made ibn Saud’s territory a British protectorate. In return ibn Saud pledged to join the British in their war against the Ottoman Empire. In 1916 the British also entered into agreement with Hussein bin Ali; the Sharif of Mecca, into what is known as Hussein/McMahon Correspondence. The British promised to help create a united Arab State with Hussein as its head if Hussein leads an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

After the defeat of the Ottomans at the end of WWII Hussein bin Ali declared himself king of Hejaz and of Arab Land. The British had other plans. Through the Sykes-Picot agreement Britain and France divided the Middle East among them, and with Balfour Declaration the British promised Palestine to Zionists. The British flared enmity between Abdul Aziz ibn Saud and Hussein bin Ali, and supported ibn Saud in defeating bin Ali and capturing Mecca, Medina, and Jeddah in 1924. In 1927 the British signed the Treaty of Jeddah recognizing the independence of Hejaz and Najd with ibn Saud as its ruler. In 1932 ibn Saud united all four regions in one country calling it the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; totally owned by the Saud family

In 1938 oil was discovered in the kingdom and by 1941 the US-controlled ARAMCO started a full scale oil development generating a huge income for the Saudi family.

During WWII the Saud family switched allegiance from the British to the USA. In mid-February 1943 Ibn Saud met former American President Franklin Roosevelt on board of the USS Quincy at the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal to plan the relationship between the two countries. Since then Saudi Arabia gradually became the subservient and a military hub for the Zionist controlled American administration. At a certain point the US had a total of five military bases in the country. At present the US still maintains a drone base in the country from which it launches raids against the surrounding countries.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest and the wealthiest Arab countries. Two sources of this wealth are the oil industry and the Islamic holy places to where every Muslim has the religious duty to visit (the Haj). Saudi Arabia is referred to as the “Land of the Two Holy Mosques”; the al-Haram Mosque in Mecca, and the an-Nabawi Mosque in Medina. Millions of Muslims travel to Saudi Arabia every year to visit these holy places and spend millions of dollars in the process. Yet the Saudi family had done very little with this money to improve the country. A lot of Saudi communities, especially in the East, are still living in poverty. Besides the oil industry the Saudis did not develop any other industry that could improve the country’s status in the industrial world. On the contrary, they had deposited most of their money in the Zionist owned and controlled western banks.

The Saudis have been spending billions of dollars buying American weaponry; mostly old and obsolete and let it rust in the desert. The goal here is to empower and to enrich the American military industry. In October 2010 the Congress was notified that Saudi Arabia will make an arms purchase worth of $60.5 billion, the biggest in American history. In 2013 Saudi military spending reached $67 billion making the country the world’s second largest arms importer according to 2014 SIPRI report.

Alleged to be a Muslim Arab country Saudi Arabia had done nothing to further any Arab or Islamic cause. On the contrary, the Saudi foreign policy has been disruptive, corruptive, manipulative, oppressive, warmongering, and mostly pro-Zionists. Through bribery the Saudis were able to support neighboring dictators, who would adopt oppressive measures and wage Zionist/American proxy wars against their neighboring Arab brothers.

The Saudis have been sabotaging and creating political obstacles to any resolution or support to the Palestinian cause. They stood idle when Zionists initially invaded Palestine in 1948, and later occupied the whole country in 1967. In 1971 the Saudis pushed Jordanian King Hussein to militarily kick the PLO out of Jordan in what is known as Black September. The PLO moved to Lebanon. The Saudis financed and armed the Lebanese Maronite Christian groups especially the Kataeb/Phalangist, started the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), and imposed the Taif Agreement that resulted into the departure of the PLO to Tunisia and the division of Lebanon into rival sectarian groups.

Led by Saudi Arabia, all the Gulf States stopped financing the PLO when Arafat made the mistake of his life supporting Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Almost bankrupt, Arafat was forced to negotiate with Israel. The Saudi influence was able to divide the Arab negotiating team leaving Arafat to sign the ill-fated Oslo Agreement with Israel.

Saudis also had joined the pressure on Arafat to accept Abbas as a Prime Minister. When Hamas won a decisive majority in the 2006 Palestinian election, Saudis played the major role of financing and arming Mohammad Dahlan, the previous head of the Palestinian Preventive Security, to lead a coup against Hamas. The coup failed. The Saudis had always blamed Hamas for allegedly conducting terrorist attacks against Israel inviting Israel’s “retaliatory attacks” in 2008/09, 2012 and 2014. Saudis accused Hamas of being Iranian subservient and of supporting Islamic Brotherhood against Egypt.

After the civil war in Lebanon, Saudi family poured money into the country through their envoy; a Lebanese/Saudi dual citizenship Rafic Hariri, who became a multi-billionaire through his business dealings with the Saudi ruling family. Through money donations and reconstructing Beirut with his own money (Saudi money no doubt), and building the groundwork for the Saudi sponsored Taif Accord to bring stability to Lebanon, Hariri eventually became Prime Minister. As the Saudi boy, his job was to get rid of the Syrian presence into Lebanon and to cut the wings of Hezbollah. Unsuccessful in these tasks during his life, Hariri’s assassination in February 2005 caused political crisis that led to Syrian departure from Lebanon in April of same year, and the accusation of Hezbollah of his assassination. Although the International Criminal Court is still going on, the accusation of Hezbollah had no proof and no merit. In 2011 Hezbollah and its allies withdrew from Saad Hariri’s (son of Rafic Hariri) government causing its collapse. Since then the Lebanese have not been able to elect a government thanks to Saudi support and backing to some Lebanese parties such as the Future Party and March 14 Alliance. Lebanon is now in chaos.

The Saudis had good relationship with Iran during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Saudi’s enmity with Iran started with the 1979 Iranian revolution. Unlike the Shah, the new Iranian regime supported the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation. The Reagan Administration and the Gulf States led by Saudi Arabia encouraged Iraq’s Sadam Hussein to attack Iran calling him “the defender of the Arab world” from Shiite radicalism. Armed with American weapons, including chemical weapons delivered by Middle East especial envoy at the time Donald Rumsfeld, and intelligent reports, many time deliberately inaccurate, and financed by Arab Gulf States, especially Saudi Arabia, who spent $200 billion, Sadam Hussein engaged Iran into an eight years (1980-1988) bloody war of attrition that ended only in a stalemate.

After disagreement over control of an Iraqi/Kuwaiti oil rich area Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The Saudis, then, opened its land and air space widely for the American forces to rebel Iraqi troops from Kuwait in what was called Operation Desert Shield. In 2003 the Saudis allowed their country to be a launching base for the American troops to invade and to destroy Iraq.

Saudi meddling in Egyptian affair gained influence after the death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. President Anwar Sadat joined Syria in the 1973 October War against Israel. As a punishment, and to sever any possible future unity with Syria the Saudis withdrew their investments from Egypt causing the 1977 Bread Riots. A condition for Saudi reinvestment was his historic visit to Israel that led to 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Egypt, thus, were taken out of the Arab/Israeli confrontation. Hosni Mubarak took office after the assassination of Sadat. He, too, had to deal with very poor economy, poverty, and high unemployment. Saudi bribes in the form of economic aid was there for his rescue. He also had to honor the peace treaty with Israel despite the anger of masses, who used to demonstrate, and at times, attack the Israeli consulate in Cairo. Mubarak was also a full partner with Israel in the choking siege against Gaza. After 30 years of oppression Mubarak became a political burden on the American administration, who planned the 2011 revolution, allegedly part of what is termed Arab Spring that led to Mubarak’s resignation and later imprisonment.

With the American and Turkish backing Mohamed Morsi; an imprisoned leading member of Muslim Brotherhood, was released from prison and “elected” president. Morsi proved to be a political embarrassment, and his one year term was full of violence. Massive protests led to Morsi’s ousting. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, who is reportedly the son of a Moroccan Jewish mother with family members in the Israeli cabinet, and the only Egyptian officer survivor of the 1999 crash of EgyptAir 990, was elected president. Saudi investments, then, poured into the country. Saudi money paid for the transfer of residents of the Egyptian side of Rafah city on the Gaza border, the destruction of the whole town, and the establishment of one kilometer buffer zone with Gaza border in the attempt to destroy all Gaza tunnels. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are suffering more due to the Israeli/Egyptian siege. Now-a-days Saudi money is paying for Egyptian support for the so-called Saudi Coalition against Yemen.

The Saudi family has been known as the creator and financer of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and its many branches, Al-Nusra, ISIS and others. These terrorist groups targeted mainly Muslim and Arab countries. With the violent extremist Wahhabi background these terrorists groups are directed to destroy what was dubbed the Shiite Crescent; an area covering Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. These countries adopt a pro-Palestinian anti-Israeli policy. With the approval and cooperation of the American administration and Israel, the Saudi ruling family have been recruiting, financing, and arming terrorists, who are fighting proxy wars for Israel/America/Saudi Arabia against Arab countries.

In early 2011 the Bahraini citizens went into the streets demanding freedom and democracy. Saudi Arabia then hastened to send its troops to the island to violently put an end to the peaceful demonstrations. The Saudi commanders were given Bahraini citizenship so that they could occupy political positions and control the small island.

Saudi meddling in the Yemeni affairs go back to 1934 when ibn Saud occupied Nijran and Jazan; two main Yemeni regions. Through their money and spreading the violent Wahhabi ideology the Saudis were able to divide Yemen into North and South. Both sides were engaged in civil wars fed by the Saudis. In 1978 the Saudis installed Ali Abdullah Saleh as president after a cease fire brokered by the Arab League.

The Yeminis resisted the Saudi interference in their country. This started in 1990 when a youth-oriented revivalist movement, mainly Houthis, struggled to gain independence and freedom. Their struggle involved six low level wars against Saudi Arabia lasting from 1990 to 2010; all lost by the Saudis, who sent the terrorist fighters of the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to fight their wars.

In 2011 the Yemeni revolution took place leading to Saleh running to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Co-operation Council devising a plan for peaceful political transition. Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Saleh’s deputy, was installed as a transitional president. Unfortunately, Hadi was a Saudi boy, similar to Saleh, and sabotaged all attempts for political transition. The Yemenis demonstrated against him. Founding no local allies, Hadi resigned and flew to Saudi Arabia. Saleh went back to Yemen and joined forces with the Houthis.

Declaring Yemenis as rebels, Saudi Arabia on the 25th of last March started a military assault on Yemen codenamed Operation Decisive Storm. For the last 40 days almost 200 fighter planes continuously bounded Yemeni major areas destroying infrastructures and civilian areas including airports, schools, hospitals, and civilian neighborhoods. Saudi Arabia and its hostile allies justify their hostility against Yemen as their attempt to restore Hadi’s legitimacy although he had resigned his office, that Houthis are threat to the security of Saudi Arabia and to the safe passage in the Red Sea, and to put a stop to what they claim the hostile hegemonic expansion of Shiite Iran, although Iran does not have any footage in Yemen.

The Saudi air assault succeeded only in showing Saudi barbarity and treachery, and is gradually turning the table against them. A “Decisive Storm”; an internal family coup among the many Saudi princes is taking place within the ruling family that is ushering the beginning of its collapse.

The Middle Eastern region has a central geopolitical and economic importance. A united Arab world could become the major global power. Before leaving the region after WWII, Britain made sure to create two complimentary, although seemingly contradictory, terrorist entities in the region; Zionist Israel in Palestine and Wahhabi Saudi Arabia in the Arabian Peninsula. The main job of these two entities is to spread terror and cause wars in the region to keep it divided and weak. Unknowingly to the Saudi family their kingdom is also planned for division.

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By Dr. Elias Akleh eakleh@ca.rr.com