Mouood Mouood English Edition
With Saudi-backed takfiris controlling Iraq’s Anbar province and the adjoining areas in Syria, it has become clear that their medieval sponsors want to create Takfiristan in this region.
The Geneva conference on Syria produced little of substance. This was expected; few harbored any illusions that it would produce any breakthroughs or result in ending the suffering of the Syrian people. The reason is simple: not only are the two sides very far apart, but the so-called Syrian opposition is made up of an odd assortment of opportunists that have no support inside Syria. Their foreign sponsors, however, have other plans. Geneva was a sideshow.
The real struggle is going on inside Syria and now increasingly in Iraq as well. A quick glance at the map would show that the foreign, primarily Saudi-backed mercenaries in Syria and Iraq occupy crucial space in both countries that could form the borders of a future takfiri state. In Iraq, the takfiris occupy the Anbar province stretching from northwest of Baghdad all the way to the Syrian border. In Syria, too, they occupy the adjoining border region and the takfiris are on a roll against other rebel groups as well. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) has been virtually decimated and their areas occupied by takfiris.
This has made life easier for Syrian government forces. Many members of the FSA have streamed back to the government side. Most Syrians now realize that the takfiri mercenaries pose a far greater threat to their existence than the Syrian regime ever did. In fact, even the BBC was forced to admit on January 21 that a survey among Syrian refugees found 87% opposed the takfiris in their country and would like to have the crisis resolved through dialogue.
This is not something the takfiris and their foreign sponsors, especially Saudi Arabia want. The Saudis know only one game: dividing Muslims by spreading hatred against groups/people they dislike. The Saudi regime has allocated $6 billion to finance the takfiris to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Asad. Compare this to the meager $120 million donated by Saudi Arabia and Qatar combined to look after more than two million Syrian refugees languishing in terrible conditions in camps in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. For the Saudis, killing people, especially those they do not like is far more important than saving innocent human lives.
The Saudi-backed military policy, however, is not getting very far but their campaign of spreading hatred is more effective. People’s emotions can be easily aroused by planting doubts in their minds. This is what the Saudis know and do best. They have spread their poisonous ideology far and wide. Pakistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia are in their grip where takfiri demagogues are running amok. Suicide and car bombings are their signature mark. Innocent people are routinely targeted and killed. How can the Saudis claim to be following the Qur’an and Sunnah when they promote and finance such demonic notions? The reality is that they are only concerned about saving their own illegitimate hold on power in the Arabian Peninsula where stirrings of revolt are getting stronger.
The takfiri poison is bound to infect Saudi society as well just as a decade ago, the eruption of al-Qaeda took the Saudis also in its sweep. The takfiris have no loyalty to anyone or anything; their ideology of hate and killings will ultimately turn on their sponsors. That explains why the Saudis are so anxious to create a state of Takfiristan in parts of Iraq and Syria so that these monsters can be contained therein and unleashed only when needed against the next “enemy.” Like the Saudis’ military policy, the Takfiristan project is also bound to fail. Perhaps, this failure will hasten the demise of one of the most hated ruling dynasties in the world.
Saudi-Zionist alliance against Muslim Ummah exposed
There is much in common between the Saudis and the Zionists. Both are illegal regimes occupying holy lands. Their secret alliance has now been exposed. Muslims must take appropriate steps to confront this phenomenon.
Two illegitimate usurper regimes, one led by Zionists in the Holy Land and the other by Najdi Bedouins in the Arabian Peninsula, have been forced by rapidly changing developments to expose their long-maintained secret ties. Not only Muslims but also many fair-minded non-Muslims recognize the illegitimacy of the Zionist pariah regime in the Holy Land. The Saudis, however, have been able to conceal their true identity by claiming to be “defenders of the Haramayn,” the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. If so, they have a strange way of claiming this on the one hand while being totally subservient to US imperialism and Zionist racism on the other.
It was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who several months ago mentioned the Zionist-Saudi alliance in the context of confronting Islamic Iran. He had talked of the Arabian regimes but given Saudi Arabia’s size and importance, it was clear, he was talking about the regime in Riyadh. Egypt, the other major player on the Arabian scene, had long embraced the Zionist regime publicly.
Two policy failures have forced the secret relationship between Riyadh and Tel Aviv to come out into the open: Saudi-Israeli policy in Syria and their policy of trying to isolate Islamic Iran in the region. Both have unraveled as a result of developments beyond their control. The Saudis in particular are not only furious at their longtime patron, the US, but also in panic because Washington has established contacts, however tenuous, with Islamic Iran.
Among a series of contacts between the Saudis and the Zionists, the latest was a brief encounter between Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal and former Israeli ambassador to Washington (1992– 1996), Itamar Rabinovich, in Monaco in mid-December. According to an Israeli radio report, Turki publicly shook hands with Rabinovich at the World Policy Conference. Their contacts have progressed so far that Rabinovich took the unusual step of inviting Turki to deliver a speech before the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
Turki reportedly declined the offer— what would he say to the Zionist occupiers of Palestine? — but the fact that the offer was made indicates their relations are deep and have been established for a long time. The offer also shows the degree of trust they have in each other. Rabinovich is an expert on Syria policy and clearly he was planning to engage the former Saudi spy master more deeply although the current Saudi intelligence chief, Bandar bin Sultan is more deeply involved with the Zionists.
Both regimes have been critical of US policy on Syria and Washington’s rapprochement with Tehran. The Zionists have been blunt to the point of being obnoxious, as is their wont. The Saudis have been more diplomatic with their American masters in public but no less vehement in their denunciation of America opening up to Tehran.
The Saudis sense a perceptible shift in US policy in the region. President Barack Obama made this known when he announced a policy shift toward the Asia-Pacific region to confront the rising power of China. The Saudis clearly see this as indication of their reduced importance to the US. Further, Obama shocked the Saudis when he refused to launch a military strike against Syria last summer in what is now known as a carefully orchestrated plan by Bandar. This was a personal slap in the face of Bandar and public humiliation of Saudi Arabia that was long believed to be America’s indispensable ally in the region.
Soon thereafter, Bandar announced that henceforth, the kingdom would go it alone in Syria without coordinating its policy with Washington. The result has been the creation of what is called the “Islamic Front,” a grouping of six or seven different rebel factions that has taken on the Western-backed, Free Syrian Army (FSA). According to several reports, the Saudi-backed and financed Islamic Front fighters have overrun FSA positions and taken over their weapon stockpiles from depots near the Turkish border. The FSA chief Salim Idriss is also reportedly on the run.
The Saudis are determined to sabotage the Geneva II conference on Syria that is scheduled for January 22. Saudi-backed groups are putting forward conditions for participation that would almost certainly wreck the chances of holding a conference. The Syrian government has also said it will only attend if there are no pre-conditions. This is what Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN and Arab League envoy had announced when the date of Geneva II was made public in November.
Syrian government forces have been making steady progress recently as rebel groups fight each other. This has weakened them considerably. Further, their barbaric practices have repelled most Syrians. They do not want the Bashar al-Asad regime to be replaced by people indulging in beheadings and cannibalism. Such behavior is no bar to the Saudis; they want al-Asad removed regardless of the price the Syrian people may have to pay. Already millions of Syrians are refugees and the UN has asked for $6.5 billion in emergency aid otherwise these people will face virtual starvation. Conditions in refugee camps whether in Lebanon or Jordan are appalling. Recent snowstorms, unusual for the region, have added to the refugees’ woes.
The plight of refugees, however, is not something that bothers the Saudis. Instead, they welcome it because it garners more sympathy for the Syrian people, which Saudi Arabia can blame on the Asad regime. It is interesting to note that even US Secretary of State John Kerry has announced that he might meet Syrian rebel groups affiliated with al-Qaeda. Did the US not invade Afghanistan to get rid of al-Qaeda or was that just a ruse to invade the mountainous but mineral-rich country?
The mastermind of the Saudi-Zionist alliance is Bandar. During his long tenure as Saudi ambassador to Washington, he cultivated close links with the neocons, especially the Zionists. His lavish parties were well known for booze and scantily clad women (one wonders what the Saudi ministry responsible for “enjoining good and preventing vice” would say about such conduct or is it permissible if one of the Saudi royals indulges in it?).
