Saudi Arabia is a sponsor of terrorism

Aug 11, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The dispute between Saudi Arabia and Canada over the Canadians’ justified condemnations of human rights in the kingdom has put Saudi Arabia in the spotlight. It was a global focus that has long been overdue. Saudi Arabia is a sickening, tyrannical monarchy that has been shielded since the US emerged as a superpower after 1945, from universal condemnation, by its strategic friendship with the US.
The Canadian critique of the horrible atrocities in Saudi Arabia is a break in the pattern of western silence about this cruel country that has absolutely no respect for the basic rights of its citizens. Generations in the world have grown up hearing the US denunciations of human rights in Cuba, while one of the intimate allies of the US – Saudi Arabia – was a far greater violator of civilized rights.
The US logic was quite barefacedly based. The Saudis are our allies, the Cubans are not, so we have a logical reason to confront Cuba. Over the past forty years, to compare the human rights record of Cuba as against the kingdom is like comparing Chris Gayle with a part time cricketer in Florida. Women got thrown in jail for demanding equal rights while in Cuba, women are as liberated as in any democratic country you can identify.
Imagine, the US been castigating Cuba for over sixty years and has an enduring relation with a country that bans women from driving. The ban is about to be relaxed, but you can end up in jail if while writing on the relaxation of the ban, you lamented its existence in the past. To think the US and other countries could cite many Third World states for democratic violations, yet retain Saudi Arabia as an ally, is woeful. How do you explain this?
Even during the eight years of the Obama Administration, he did not depart from the traditional security relation with Saudis. One of the rudest awakenings President Obama ever got in his life was when he went to Kenya and advised that gay rights should be of utmost consideration by the Kenyan Government. I suggest you go to YouTube and listen to the Kenyan president’s response. It was a real no-nonsense rebuttal to Obama, who had to listen.
Guyanese have a saying that foreigners may not understand, “eyepass.” Was it “eyepass” for Obama to go to Kenya, which is a country the US has a lesser relationship with than Saudi Arabia, and lecture the people on gay rights, when in Saudi Arabia homosexuality is a criminal offence, and even women don’t have the same rights as men. They say charity begins at home. The best place for an American president to give a talk on equal rights would have been a traditional American ally.
The Canadians have made a prodigiously positive effort in the preservation of the dignity of humans when they accused Saudi Arabia of violating the rights of its citizens. The question above still has to be answered. Why does the US confront certain Third World countries for undemocratic rule while cozying up to a hell hole like Saudi Arabia. The answer is international security.
The US is a colossal importer of oil. Given the enormity of its economy and the largeness of its military resources, the US will for countless years to come, depend on oil from other countries. Saudi Arabia has perhaps the world’s largest reserves of oil. But there is another reason for the US friendship. Saudi Arabia is accommodating to US strategic interests in the Middle East. The Saudis form part of a working alliance with Israel and the US in the Middle East.
The United States’ hands are tied. This explains why Obama never uttered even one word of condemnation of monarchial tyranny in Saudi Arabia. The Canadians do not have the strategic dependence on the kingdom as America. Trade between the kingdom and Canada is not as priceless as in the US situation. So the Canadians could run the risk of confronting the Saudis and be unafraid of the kingdom’s angry reactions.
Finally, one of the most dangerous ironies in world politics since Thucydides wrote his famous book, “The History Of The Peloponnesian War”, is the enduring security alliance between the US and Saudi Arabia, and the latter is part sponsor of what is easily described as the most bestial, uncivilized forms of terrorism history has ever known – the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The origins of ISIS’s hatred for the Shite Muslim religion were encouraged by the opposing Sunni Muslin rulers of Saudi Arabia who bankrolled ISIS initially. And it still goes on. There is quiet pressure by the US, but the Saudis remain a sponsor of ISIS terrorism.

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Saudi Arabia is a sponsor of terrorism

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