Saudi activist: Yemen developments are the outcome of the Kingdom's failed policies

[Jefferson23]

March 26, 2015

Saudi activist and renowned academic Dr Madawi Al-Rashid has outlined a series of failures in Saudi foreign policy since the beginning of the Arab Spring that she claims have led to the current situation in the Arab region, but more specifically in Yemen, which has been almost completely taken over by Houthis rebels.

Al-Rashid said in a series of tweets that "the Saudi regime is reaping the fruits of the failure of its foreign policy since the beginning of the Arab revolutions, which the regime considered a direct threat to the hereditary regime. The Saudi regime stood in the face of the inclination of the masses of all forms especially the Islamic masses, which joined the democratic process and succeeded in the elections. The Saudi regime has reaped the enmity of the most horizontally widespread current in the Arab societies but stood alone and found none but new dictatorships to stand by it."

Al-Rashid went on to say: "In North Africa, the Saudi regime contributed to the re-production of despotism in a new format especially upon dreading what happened in Egypt after the revolution and in Iraq after its occupation, to which the Saudi regime contributed. The Saudi regime did not succeed in restoring Iraq to the Arab house. Instead it took a hostile position toward it, permitting Iran to penetrate it freely."

Al-Rashid pointed out that the Saudi regime failed in Syria too, and was not able to save it from Iranian influence. Instead, it considered the Syrian revolution a vehicle for bringing down the regime in Syria without any consideration for the interests of the Syrian people. It also failed in Lebanon when the Saudi operation fell after the Saudi regime "held the Lebanese responsible for the Israeli war in 2006 and hence took the side of the aggressor rather than the victim."

in full: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/17731-saudi-activist-yemen-developments-are-the-outcome-of-the-kingdoms-failed-policies

[Fred Sanders]

1. With friends like the dictatorial and repressive beyond belief House of Saudi, who needs enemies?

Saudi as an ally stands as a living monument to American hypocrisy about "freedom", a monument seen by all the world outside heavily propagandized America.

Fact is the Houthis could have taken over the government months ago, and wanted negotiations...and they let the President stay and then let him flee to Oman..Houthis did not want power, they only wanted Justice and equality for their people.

What part of the fact the Presidential palace was surrounded by for several months now without an attempt to take it over, easily done, is not part of the history?

Saudi is evil. Anything they do is evil...America is again on the wrong side.

"The situation however quickly deteriorated into a widescale uprising, with various insurgency campaigns consolidating into an armed tribal struggles, both between the armed opposition and terror groups vs. the government and among themselves. Eventually Saudi-brokered agreement on Saleh's resignation and 2012 Presidential election saw the installation of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi as an interim President. Hadi has been presiding over political reform and national reconciliation and was supposed to serve only two years in the post. On November 2013 U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar told The Associated Press Hadi will remain president after February 2014 because the transition is not likely to be completed earlier due to "obstruction" from former regime loyalists."

"In northern Yemen, where a large Shi’a Zaydi population lives, Saleh's regime has for decades alienated this community through discriminatory religious and political policies. Saleh, with the help of some elements in Saudi Arabia, had promoted strongly anti-Zaydi groups of Salafi Muslims in this region. Feeling beleaguered and marginalized, the Zaydis organized themselves politically in the early 2000s under the aegis of a family of religious scholars called the Houthis. They began by criticizing Saleh’s pro-U.S. policies, which led to armed confrontation and a series of wars with the Yemeni army. This ultimately dragged the Saudi Arabian military into the fray, leading to considerable property destruction and a large refugee problem. In 2011, as Saleh's power waned in the provinces as a result of the uprising against him, the Houthis took control over large areas of the north, but still remain outside the political,framework of government".

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Yemen

[Jefferson23]

3. Oil.

Looking back to Bush and company 2008..it is interesting in lieu of the changes
with Iran and the rise of ISIS:

Bush's bankrupt vision

snip* US-Saudi relations date to the recognition of the Kingdom in 1933 Ñ not coincidentally, the year when Standard of California obtained a petroleum concession and American geologists began to explore what turned out to be the world's largest reserves of oil.

The United States quickly moved to ensure its own control, important steps in a process by which the United States took over world dominance from Britain, which was slowly reduced to a "junior partner," as the British Foreign Office lamented, unable to counter "the economic imperialism of American business interests, which is quite active under the cloak of a benevolent and avuncular internationalism" and is "attempting to elbow us out."

The strong US-Israel alliance took its present form in 1967, when Israel performed a major service to the United States by destroying the main center of secular Arab nationalism, Nasser's Egypt, also safeguarding the Saudi rulers from the secular nationalist threat. US planners had recognised a decade earlier that a "logical corollary" of US opposition to "radical" (that is, independent) Arab nationalism would be "to support Israel as the only strong pro-Western power left in the Middle East."

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20080601.htm

[leveymg]

2. Saudi activist soon to be branded a heretic and beheaded after 1,000 lashes.

Just can't say such things in our favorite Mideast hereditary dictatorship. Sets a bad example.

Recced for visibility.

[Jefferson23]

4. Our friends, yep.

When It Comes to Beheadings, ISIS Has Nothing Over Saudi Arabia
By Janine di Giovanni / October 14, 2014 12:56 PM EDT

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/24/when-it-comes-beheadings-isis-has-nothing-over-saudi-arabia-277385.html

[leveymg]

10. ISIS is nothing but the Saudi paramilitary. They play by KSA and Qatari rules,

as that is where they have always gotten most of their arms and funding. Same as Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Mujahadeen. and the Muslim Brotherhood before them. If the Saudis didn't own a big chunk of corporate America and our venal Congress and the Bush family, the US would have bombed Riyadh to rubble after 9/11.

[Jefferson23]

12. Oil brings out the best in people, doesn't it.

No question about the damage from Bush, but is it not important to recognize
how in the hell did it even become possible that any American would see a
man of such poor credentials and even worse ideas, run for office?

How else does the Republican brand continue if not for the blatant
pleas to the worst elements in our society, uneducated, racist
fundies and the elite, who benefit from controlling the regulations
to their benefit.

[leveymg]

13. The Saudis bought the '00 and '04 elections

KSA makes its contributions through the US companies it has a controlling interest it buys.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Madawi al-Rasheed teaches at the London School of Economics and Politial Science....

nt

[leveymg]

11. Exactly. That's why she isn't in prison (or worse) and is free to write such things.

[bemildred]

5. Saudi policies have been remarkably counter-productive.

But myself I've never felt any incentive to try to wise them up about that.

I assume al-Rashid is located in some safe place, she has a sharp tongue.

I want to compare her statement that the Saudis can only stand by and watch with what is actually happening, but it's not that clear what is happening. However, the Saudis are definitely not just standing by, 150,000 is a lot of troops. Yemen is beautiful, but it isn't the sort of place where there is lots of stuff worth bombing, so they will have to send in troops to accomplish anything, and past experience hasn't been that encouraging about that prospect either.

[Jefferson23]

6. I imagine she is well aware of where she needs to be to stay safe..agreed.

The Kingdom fucks up almost all the time, it's what control freaks do best..imho.

[bemildred]

7. Pretty much.

Ouch: "A new team, who thinks strategically and not in a stupid sectarian fashion, should be appointed."

I think she'd like a chance at the job.

[Jefferson23]

8. I know, I laughed that she did not bother to use another word for stupid.

Why beat around the bush after all these years.

I would like to think they would consult with her, but I would like a lot of things
to change in my government too in regards to SA and other countries that won't
likely happen anytime soon.