Posted on 04/01/2011 3:03:39 PM PDT by FredDardick
This, in short, is the essence of a deal struck between the Barack Obama administration and the House of Saud. Two diplomatic sources at the United Nations independently confirmed that Washington, via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave the go-ahead for Saudi Arabia to invade Bahrain and crush the pro-democracy movement in their neighbor in exchange for a "yes" vote by the Arab League for a no-fly zone over Libya - the main rationale that led to United Nations Security Council resolution 1973.
The revelation came from two different diplomats, a European and a member of the BRIC group, and was made separately to a US scholar and Asia Times Online. According to diplomatic protocol, their names cannot be disclosed. One of the diplomats said, "This is the reason why we could not support resolution 1973. We were arguing that Libya, Bahrain and Yemen were similar cases, and calling for a fact-finding mission. We maintain our official position that the resolution is not clear, and may be interpreted in a belligerent manner."
As Asia Times Online has reported, a full Arab League endorsement of a no-fly zone is a myth. Of the 22 full members, only 11 were present at the voting. Six of them were Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, the US-supported club of Gulf kingdoms/sheikhdoms, of which Saudi Arabia is the top dog. Syria and Algeria were against it. Saudi Arabia only had to "seduce" three other members to get the vote.
Translation: only nine out of 22 members of the Arab League voted for the no-fly zone. The vote was essentially a House of Saud-led operation, with Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa keen to polish his CV with Washington with an eye to become the next Egyptian President.
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
Nice
:)
Thank you!
“The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future”
Vali Nasr
2006
It's not Russia Today, but Asia Times still isn't what I'd consider the best source of information about American foreign policy.
Sick reminder, but thank you for it!
It’s so good to “see” you!
It appears that Moussa Koussa’s family and anyone else who is thinking of defecting is being made to suffer.
We could end up getting pulled into an African Islamic civil war ....
Former Lebanese minister is calling on the people of Saudi to rise up against the ruling class of saudi Arabia.
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/5166.htm
I recently read that AQ is in Chad and are taking the surface to air missiles there, during their uprising there as well. it was the president of Chad who stated this. He cannot say how many, but is 100% sure of it. I’ll try and locate the link.
Rhe thing VERY wrong with this is Obama’s motive to oust Cairo and Libya looks to be to enpower the muslim brotherhood that the Obama admin and US media FALSELY claim are the good guys.Obama does not act in Israel or America’s best interests.
bttt
Islamo Bamma! Great name and I’m going to use it unless you object. Let me know if you object.
Zero
It is a good deal for the Saudi's. They are fighting a proxy war with Iran in Bahrain. By proxy, so is the US. Looks like the good guys are going to win that one, or at least the really bad guys aren't going to win.
Libya is a different story. It looks like the US was sucked in by France and elements of the Arab League. They simply want Gadaffy out. France has a real grudge because Libya is basically occupying Northern Chad (a de facto French protectorate). Also, Gadaffy brought down a French airliner on the Chad run many years ago. The French want revenge. Neat trick to use the USAF to get it.
Typical Arabian ploy. If the war/no-fly/whatever-the-hell-it-is in Libya goes well, the Arab League was behind it. If it goes badly, the entire Arab League was not really consulted, and a majority of members were opposed. Obama is letting himself get set up as the fall guy, and all the while patting himself on the back about how well he understands Muslims. Sucker.
Oooops thought I you said Bowling!
there’s clearly more behind the scenes we’ll probably never really know about. The WH was against it, Clinton and Gates were both downplaying a NFZ, there was zero debate in Congress, and all of a sudden there’s an Arab League vote and UNSCR and we’re sending B2s from MO to Tripoli. That just doesn’t happen. Between this and the energy/oil needs of Europe lies the answer.
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