Saudi invasion, terrorist support and subversion, Spans Bahrain, Syria, GCC

Two Years After Invasion to Crush Uprising in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia Helps Fuel Conflict in Syria
18 March, 2013 – By Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez – Democracy NOW

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: As we continue our coverage of the second anniversary of the Syrian uprising, I want to bring Reese Erlich into the conversation. Reese is a freelance foreign correspondent who’s reported from Syria on several occasions. He has just returned from 10 days in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. I want to play a clip of his report for NPR on Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the Syrian conflict.

REESE ERLICH: A crowd of men walked slowly out of a working-class mosque after Friday prayers. The mosque’s imam has just asked everyone to pray for the Syrian rebels. Worshiper Taher Mohammad wants to see the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

TAHER MOHAMMAD: Bashar, his army is making all kind of crime. Yes, of course, I support the revolution.

REESE ERLICH: Mohammad says he also supports Saudis going to fight in Syria. Dozens of Facebook pages memorialize Saudis killed in Syria. Late last year, a judge in one Saudi city told young anti-government protesters that they should be fighting jihad in Syria, not demonstrating at home. Reached by phone, Abdurrahman al-Talq, father of one of the defendants, recalls what the judge said.

ABDURRAHMAN AL-TALQ: [translated] The judge said, “You should save all your energy and fight against the real enemy, the Shia Muslims in Syria, and not fight inside Saudi Arabia.”

REESE ERLICH: Within weeks, 11 of the 19 defendants left to join the rebels. In December last year, al-Talq’s son was killed in Syria.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Reese Erlich’s report on NPR from Saudi Arabia. He joins us now from San Francisco. And still with us in studio is Rim Turkmani, a member of the Syrian Civil Democratic Alliance, meeting in New York at the United Nations with various staffs of Security Council members discussing possible political solutions to the situation in Syria. Reese, you’re just back from Syria—from Saudi Arabia. Tell us what you found.

REESE ERLICH: Well, I was there on assignment for NPR and for GlobalPost. What I found was that the—excuse me—the Saudi government and wealthy Saudis are involved in arming Syrian rebels, the most ultraconservative, ultrareligious groups, such as al-Nusra, and that hundreds of Saudis are infiltrating across the borders from Jordan and Turkey and going to fight with these extremist groups in Syria.

AMY GOODMAN: What is Saudia Arabia’s interest?

REESE ERLICH: Well, the Saudis want to see a pro-Saudi government emerge. The analysts I spoke to in Saudi Arabia point to what they call the Yemen model, where there was an Arab Spring uprising, the head of the government was replaced, but a pro-Western, pro-Saudi general replaced the old guy. So, they’d love to see that happen in Syria. But as my sources pointed out, it’s not going to happen, because Syria is very, very different from Yemen.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Rim, your reaction in terms of the historic relationships between Saudi Arabia and Syria?

RIM TURKMANI: As we all know, Saudi Arabia is not a democratic country. The uprising started to reach a democratic Syria. So, I don’t have faith in any undemocratic country to support democratic transition inside Syria. I’m not surprised that they’re supporting the armed rebels and increasing the level of violence in Syria. However, we are very confident that violence never, ever leads to democracy. So, as much as I oppose the regime, my group opposes the regime, we oppose also these efforts from Saudi Arabia to turn Syria into a jihadi land. I mean, the Syrians are—their mentality is very, very different from like the jihadi extreme Muslims’ mentality, and I think they will find it very difficult to market their ideas inside Syria. However, the violence is giving them the right environment, fertile environment, for such ideology to spread.

I fear that these efforts are damaging the relationship between the Saudi and the Syrian people. I mean, many Syrians now inside Syria, let’s say, especially in the more stable parts, feel very strongly about the Saudi approach and support extremism. It’s even in the media. I mean, they host many sectarian media stations, and they keep repeating, you know, as we heard, “This is a Shia-against-Sunni war, and we have to win it.” And, you know, we—I’m a Syrian. I grew up in Syria. I didn’t know my sect until I was 20 years old, and it’s never been an issue for us. The people who demonstrated two years ago, they did not demonstrate because they are Sunni or Shia. So, their efforts to turn this into a Shia-Sunnni confrontation are certainly not welcome.

AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this month, the Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, explained his country’s position on Syria. He was speaking in Riyadh at a joint news conference following talks with Secretary of State John Kerry.

PRINCE SAUD AL-FAISAL: As to providing enough aid and security for the Syrians, Saudi Arabia will do everything within its capabilities to help in this. We do believe that what is happening in Syria is a slaughter, a slaughter of innocent people. And we just can’t bring ourselves to remain quiet in front of this carnage.

AMY GOODMAN: “We cannot bring ourselves to remain silent—quiet in front of this carnage.” Reese Erlich, your response?

REESE ERLICH: Well, it’s rather hypocritical. Saudi Arabia sent troops to repress the carnage going on in Bahrain a year—well, now two years ago. Saudi Arabia has its political, economic, military interests in the region. It supports the repressive monarchies. It doesn’t like the al-Assad regime, but it got along perfectly well with the Egyptian and Tunisian dictatorships. So, to say the least, Saudi Arabian officials are being hypocritical.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Reese, in terms of the—well, earlier—in terms of the other countries in the region and their attitude toward support for the Syrian resistance, what’s your sense of other countries and their particular interests, other than Saudi Arabia?

REESE ERLICH: Well, Turkey, of course, has been a very strong supporter. Most of—I’ve not traveled to almost all the countries that have undergone Arab Spring uprisings over the last year or two. And the—Syria still remains a popular uprising, despite all the very serious problems that the country is going through. And people do support popular uprisings. What I think people—I think the exception would be Iran, which has heavily backed Assad, and Hezbollah in Lebanon has heavily backed Assad. But with those exceptions, there is not a lot of support for the Assad government. And, you know, people—what’s happened is, the longer the uprising has taken place and the harsher the repression from Assad, the more foreign powers have gotten involved, each trying to get their guy into power.

And in the case of the U.S., the U.S.—you know, the debate in the U.S. is whether—well, shall we bomb them? Shall we create a no-fly zone and arm the rebels and take a more militant stand? Or shall we continue kind of the Obama policies of secretly arming the—and covertly arming and training the guerrillas? The problem is, the reason this has not been resolved, as pointed out to me by a Muslim Brotherhood leader that I interviewed in Istanbul, is that the U.S. hasn’t found a leader that it can trust to pursue its interests. If you recall, in the case of Iraq or Afghanistan, there was a guy the U.S. promoted as the new democrat, supposedly, who turned out to be otherwise. But they haven’t found that guy yet in Syria, and that’s one of the reasons that they’re taking a less than militant stand in support of the Syrian rebels.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to play another clip from your report on NPR that features Mohammed al-Qahtani, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association. On Saturday, al-Qahtani was sentenced at least to 10 years in prison for offenses that included sedition and giving inaccurate information to foreign media.

REESE ERLICH: At a human rights meeting in Riyadh, participants discuss Saudi involvement in Syria. Mohammed al-Qahtani, an activist and professor at the Institute of Diplomatic Studies, says the judge’s remarks reflect a government effort to undercut domestic protest. …more