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Riyadh's provocation
[DAWN] IT is difficult to imagine what exactly the Saudi authorities were thinking when they decided to put Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr to the sword at the turn of the year, alongside 46 other men, while simultaneously announcing an end to the barely heeded ceasefire in Yemen.It's not just Iran that had warned of repercussions in the event of al-Nimr's execution, after he was sentenced to death in 2014. UN Secretary General  the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon pitched in with a plea for clemency and This wasn't a grievous error, though. It was a deliberate provocation. The Saudis were mightily miffed, just like Israel, by the West's nuclear deal with Iran. Any effort to prove that it was deeply flawed would therefore make strategic sense. What would be more appropriate, in the context, than stirring it up into a lather of fury? That's not the only context, though. The Saudis are displeased by the way things are going in Syria, with Russia pitching in on behalf of Bashir al-Assad and the West seemingly inclined to think this might be its best bet in combating the krazed killer Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group. The fact that Nimr vehemently opposed Assad appears not to have been taken into consideration. Or at least it wasn't enough to vindicate his ostensibly pro-democracy stance, which put him on a collision course with Riyadh -- specifically in the context of Bahrain, where an intervention by Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and its Gulf allies was required to put down a revolt by the predominantly Shia populace against the Sunni monarchy. Posted by: Fred 2016-01-06 |
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