Posted on 03/24/2015 6:18:31 PM PDT by Kaslin
Saudi commentator: ‘He is gambling with the future of the region’
JERUSALEM—With Washington cozying up to Tehran as nuclear negotiations approach countdown stage, Arab media in the region are lashing out at the United States for jilting its Arab allies.
Unlike Israelis, who are focused on the danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of a regime calling for their country’s elimination, citizens of Arab states are concerned about Iran’s imperial ambitions. The nuclear threat is seen as a tool to further those ambitions rather than a direct threat.
Khaled Al-Dahil, a Saudi political commentator writing in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, said the Obama administration is allowing Iran and its Shiite militias to operate freely in Iraq and Syria in order to advance the signing of a nuclear agreement. “Why does Obama consider it necessary to reach such an agreement? Because his objective is to tie the Iranians’ hands for 10-15 years in hopes that by then Iran will have a new leadership and will become a different country—perhaps a democratic country with less of a desire for nuclear weapons. This perception is superficial and faulty because it is based on dreams that are more like delusions. He is gambling with the future of the region.”
Prominent Iranian figures have in recent days fed Arab fears by referring to Tehran’s imperial ambitions. The Saudi government daily, Al-Watan, noted in an editorial that the president of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, boasted that Iran now has a presence on the shores of the Mediterranean (in Lebanon, as patron of the Hezbollah militia) and on the Bab-el-Mandab Straits linking the Red Sea and the Suez Canal with the Indian Ocean by virtue of its proxies in Yemen, the Houthis, who have taken control of that country.
Shamkhani’s remarks were followed by those of Ali Younesi, adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, who said Iran is once more an empire, as in antiquity, and that its capital is Baghdad in Iraq.
The editorial said these statements “reveal the truth about the Iranian aspirations to restore the glory of the Persian empire and take revenge on the Arabs.” The newspaper said the Gulf states and the Arab League must rouse the international community in order to limit Iranian expansion.
“The extent of U.S. collusion with Teheran,” said the editorial, “is apparent from the suspicious silence (by the U.S.) regarding the unusually extensive deployment of Iranian forces in Iraq under the pretext of fighting ISIS.”
The Saudi media, in a country with strong traditional ties with the United States, has been particularly outspoken on the issue. “The U.S. should know,” wrote Saudi journalist Abdallah Nasser Al-Otaibi, “that constantly taking a neutral position and occasionally negotiating with (Iran) behind the backs of its allies will damage the historic alliance that has existed since the 1940s and will cause its regional allies to consider shaking the hands of the other global power (Russia).”
Noting the influence that Russia has secured in Syria and elsewhere in the region, he said that the Gulf states must switch from periodic expressions of displeasure with their American partners “to a response that penetrates all the American elites.” The United States must make clear everything pertaining to Iran, he wrote, “for the current situation can no longer be taken lightly.”
This idiot (0) is going to get every nation in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia to turn against us.
How in the world can you screw up so bad that the Saudi’s are even getting upset.
An honest politician is one who stays bought. I’m wondering if Obama seeming to throw over the Saudis for Iran won’t have some very negative personal consequences for him. The Saudis and their allies likely won’t remain passive for long.
they should know it is delusional O not the US.
Being a Progressive, he may be open-minded about which sect gets to rule the future Caliphate.
Maybe it’s Valerie Jarret living out her wet dream.
That arrogant pos has made this great country into a laughing stock
Netanyahu’s win is convenient for Arab leaders [Israel & Iran]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3271474/posts
Analysis: The Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi and Gulf state rulers trust Israel’s re-elected prime minister to handle the Iranian issue, and the Americans to pressure him on the Palestinian issue.
The Arab world, just like officials in Jerusalem and in the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, is monitoring the steps of the American dance which is casting a shadow on the elections results here. One can definitely say that the roof did not collapse on the Arab leaders’ heads when Netanyahu won. The elections here appeared odd, and if there was any attention, it focused on the joint Arab list, and that attention was limited too. Israel’s Arabs are still perceived as a strange entity, sort of collaborators enjoying a democracy which was not born in their region. Despite the potential, there is no chance that they will head the bridge to peace.
So far, we haven’t heard that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi or Jordan’s King Abdullah telephoned Netanyahu to congratulate him. On the eve of the elections, al-Sisi actually told the Washington Post that he talks to Netanyahu “a lot.” Abdullah is keeping quiet. He is stressed out because of the Islamic State which is sitting on his fences and the bloody clashes in Syria which are spilling very close to the Jordanian border. In recent days, Abdullah sent his foreign minister on an abrupt visit to Tehran. The last thing he needs is that the Revolutionary Guards’ long hands in Iraq will approach the kingdom.
There is a lot of restlessness in the new king’s palace in Saudi Arabia. Try to convince the White House that there is a huge difference between the Sunni majority in the Arab world and the Shiite minority which is pressing in Lebanon ...
Even her trail leads to Khalid al-Mansour and Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia.
Might as well buy gas now, it will never be this cheap again, once Iran starts its march.
That’s his-her plan.
We the people elected delusional O.
Not once, but twice.
How much I care about “what the world thinks” could be put poured into a carbon nanosphere with room left over, but it is a little amusing to note that these were the folks who gave the fool a Nobel prize for nothing more than coming in the door. Think of what they’ll give him for going out!
maybe, head of the U.N.?
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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He's too busy trying to get the Iranian media to like him. No time for Arabs.
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