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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe U.S.-Saudi crackup reaches a dramatic tipping point
The breach became dramatic over the past week. Last Friday, Saudi Arabia refused to take its seat on the United Nations Security Council, in what Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi intelligence chief, described as a message for the U.S., not the U.N, according to the Wall Street Journal. On Tuesday, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former head of Saudi intelligence, voiced a high level of disappointment in the U.S. governments dealings on Syria and the Palestinian issue, in an interview with Al-Monitor.
What should worry the Obama administration is that Saudi concern about U.S. policy in the Middle East is shared by the four other traditional U.S. allies in the region: Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. They argue (mostly privately) that Obama has shredded U.S. influence by dumping President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, backing the Muslim Brotherhoods Mohamed Morsi, opposing the coup that toppled Morsi, vacillating in its Syria policy, and now embarking on negotiations with Iran all without consulting close Arab allies.
Saudi King Abdullah privately voiced his frustration with U.S. policy in a lunch in Riyadh Monday with King Abdullah of Jordan and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of the U.A.E., according to a knowledgeable Arab official. The Saudi monarch is convinced the U.S. is unreliable, this official said. I dont see a genuine desire to fix it on either side, he added.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/10/23/the-u-s-saudi-crackup-hits-a-dramatic-tipping-point/
Deep13
(39,154 posts)How bad does a government have to be to make ours look good?
1000words
(7,051 posts)Maybe DC and Wall St wont have second thoughts about reducing oil prices then.
Uncle Joe
(58,366 posts)of the Eygptian People, it's too bad the Saudis can't tell the difference.
The bad feeling that developed after Mubaraks ouster deepened month by month: The U.S. supported Morsis election as president; opposed a crackdown by the monarchy in Bahrain against Shiites protesters; cut aid to the Egyptian military after it toppled Morsi and crushed the Brotherhood; promised covert aid to the Syrian rebels it never delivered; threatened to bomb Syria and then allied with Russia, instead; and finally embarked on a diplomatic opening to Iran, Saudi Arabias deadly rival in the Gulf.
Thanks for the thread, FarCenter.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)FarCenter
(19,429 posts)Bonobo
(29,257 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)thrilled that Bush protected them by lying about Iraq.
What a mess this whole thing is.
Egypt is in turmoil and I wouldn't be surprised if the Saudis were behind a lot of the turmoil there as we know they were in Syria.
Something is going right for a change if they are upset that all their work in Syria, arming the proxy armies and Al Queda eg, was for nothing.
If Obama got them this upset, he must be doing something right.
Seems they have behind a lot of things and got away with it until recently. Partly due to the emergence of the New Media who are not beholden to the Big Oil Cartels.
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)Fuck any asshole that calls himself a 'king'.
okaawhatever
(9,462 posts)The Republicans always criticize Obama's foreign policy, but they couldn't sway public opinion on that one. I wonder if the covert aid we promised Syria that didn't come could have been because of the Benghazi hearings and similar attacks by the gop? The Republicans used a covert operation they were fully aware of against Obama for political gold, is it any wonder he didn't want to try and covertly do anything anymore? (If the King's statement were true to begin with?)