Saudi contagion — the US-Israeli nexus

Abu Dharr

Have you ever stepped back and looked at the crumbling regimes in the Arab East? If you did, have you realized they are republics and not monarchies; not that there is much of a difference between the two but the hype in the corporate media is about freedom, rights, dignity, democracy, and the rest of this political litany that is well-known. And if we were to stick to this line, then surely the people most deprived of these freedoms, rights, etc. are the people who live under such despotic rulers as the Saudi royals where criticizing the king is tantamount to kufr!


It is against the law to hold a demonstration in American-managed Saudi Arabia. It is against the law for a woman to drive a car in American-supervised Saudi Arabia. It is against the law to allow Muslims to meet in Makkah and Madinah so they can express their ideological mind and Islamic conscience about such uniting issues as the liberation of Palestine and other American occupied territories. And it is an unwritten law that forbids the establishmentarian journalists and the salaried academics from highlighting the anti-democratic and pro-chauvinist nature of the kings and princes of Arabia. It is called “self-censorship.”



And if the woes of the Peninsula were limited to Arabia then it could be argued that it is up to the Arabians of Arabia to fix their own house. One Saudi lady, complaining out loud a few weeks ago after noticing other men in other countries standing up and sacrificing life and limb for their principles, is quite right when she said that Saudi men have lost their testosterone. To which we add: they have misplaced it; they let go of it in brothels instead of building it up in boot camps. But, alas, the evils of that kingdom are directed into other Islamic regions, particularly into the lands that are fired up by the “Arab Spring.”


With American and Israeli guardianship, the Arabian mushrik monarchs were thrown the Libyan bone. They sensed victory was in the air. And, thus, they turned their fury against Syria. Syria has become the political Maginot Line for Riyadh and its Gulf Cooperation Council offshoots (Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and ‘Oman). Syria in and of itself would be of no concern to these moneyed mushriks. [Mushriks, we say, because they have correlated Allah’s (swt) power and authority with that of the imperialists and Zionists]. But Syria is the untested link between a future groundswell of popular determination to liberate Palestine that is centered on Islamic Iran and extends all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. The Americans and Israelis played their hand against Islamic Iran in Iraq, first via Saddam’s regime and lost, and then via the current regime in Baghdad and lost again. The Israelis and Americans tried their hand against Hizbullah and Hamas and lost yet again. The only thing left now is to sabotage the Syrian connection by breaking Syria up.


And to do this the Israelis and the Americans will need their trump card: the Saudi brand of Islam. The Saudi brand of Islam, which considers [Zionist] Jews and [imperialist] Christians to be “Ahl al-Kitab” and considers ‘Alawi Muslims and Shi‘i Muslims to be kafirs, heretics, and unbelievers, is a godsend to the American and Israeli policy-makers at this critical moment in the world-shaking developments in the Muslim realm. The political slaves of Arabia who were never liberated by the Qur’an and the Sunnah are taking orders from America and not from the Almighty. We can without much imagination see how desperate and hopeless the master in Washington is when he speaks to his slaves in Riyadh, and how inferior the slave who obeys a toothless master must be. Uncle slave-master Sam nervously watches the 19 Americans to be tried in Egypt by, of all people, the Egyptians who were also the political slaves of the US just last year. Three US senators have gone to Cairo to “extradite” these 19 Americans from the US embassy where they have been fugitives from the law for the past couple of weeks. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman are probably expressing dire threats in diplomatic language to diffuse this new low in American prestige overseas. And the Egyptian officials (if we read them correctly) will either release the 19 without due process to gain brownie points with their yesteryear masters, or will promise the senators their eventual release after a theater of due process so as to avoid the wrath of Egyptian public opinion.


The price of oil is climbing because Israel wants its Euro-American allies to put the pressure of sanctions squarely on the people in Iran. Prices have already hit $120 a barrel after the Islamic Republic cut off oil sales to the Israeli political subsidiaries of France and Britain. The more the Israelis and Americans become nervous the more their Saudi subordinates feel the pressure to “do something about it”.


Enter al-Qaeda. How about that? Al-Qaeda has found common purpose with its arch-enemy, the US, in targeting the heretic ‘Alawis in Syria! How about that for a Saudi feat? An al-Qaeda leader somewhere to the east or south of Tora Bora is rediscovered by the media and his video-taped message to all al-Qaeda units in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey becomes a news sensation. Don’t be fooled by this yet again al-Qaeda-fits-all-occasions scenario. It is not al-Qaeda that is on its way to kill, blowup, assassinate, or commit acts of violence and terror is Syria. It is the Special Forces of the US, Britain, and Zionist Israel who are about to enter the fray in Syria. You can be sure that when the specter of al-Qaeda is flashed to the general public, it means that Navy Seals, Army Rangers, intelligence agents under deep cover, and black-ops personnel are being positioned to execute their orders which will prove the Saudi propaganda correct: kill the Syrian heathens (minority Muslims) and thank Ahl al-Kitab Sam and Ahl al-Kitab Moshe for being on the orthodox side in this intra-Islamic strife in war-torn Syria!


The Syrian-Saudi sectarian strife is only one chapter, as important and dangerous as it is, in the ongoing three decade confrontation between the US and Israel on one side and the Islamic Republic of Iran on the other.


All these details aside, the maturing political Muslim must understand that the corporate and capitalist war against Iran with all its ruling classes around the world is what defines the reactions of such regimes as the Saudi and other Arabian ones. The Syrian people are oppressed like other peoples in that castaway part of the world. The Syrian people deserve a representative government like all other peoples in that region and in the world. That, though, does not mean that the Israeli-American-Saudi troika should be given the opportunity to play off their antagonism toward Islamic Iran riding on the waves and lives of the Syrian people. How hypocritical and misleading can an American regime be when it is shedding crocodile tears on those killed in Homs while the same American regime committed atrocities in Fallujah across the border in Iraq — that in comparison would make the Syrian regime look quite civilized? When were the American and Israeli officials so concerned with Syrian lives? When were the Saudi royals themselves concerned with Syrian lives?


The Saudi brainsick rulers will not listen to advice. They have attached themselves to the US and thus to Israel beyond any quote from the Qur’an and citation of the Sunnah. They can’t see that Israel is positioning the Iron Dome defense batteries around Tel Aviv in preparation for war. This fortification of Israeli urban centers will continue in the coming weeks. Israeli schools are holding what they call earthquake exercises. Israeli police are running drills in what they tell us are scenarios of Palestinian mass riots and attempts to storm across the borders from all directions. This may be in reference to this year’s mass mobilization of a peoples movement to cross into occupied Palestine from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria.


The noose is tightening around the war criminals in their racist enclave. The wars that have been imposed on the Muslims all over the world amount to an unintended military basic training exercise. The US and Israel along with their Saudi sidekick have militarized the Islamic world. And if they want to light the match they should know very well that their corporate and transnational interests will go up in flames. People will fight on their own turf for however long it takes to free themselves of invasions and occupations.


History 101: there has never been an invading force that has indefinitely conquered another people against their own faith and will. Will the Muslims identify who the other Muslim is before it is too late? Will the Muslims distinguish between Ahl al-Kitab and the Zionists and imperialists before it is too late? “O our Sustainer! Bestow on us Your eminent grace, and endow us, whatever our [outward] condition, with consciousness of what is right” (10:18).

Sanctioning Syria: Who is the Real Loser?

By Dr. Elias Akleh - Intifada-Palestine.com

Dr. Elias Akleh is an Arab writer from a Palestinian descent born in the town of Beit Jala. His family was first evicted from Haifa after the “Nakba” of 1948, then from Beit Jala after the “Nakseh” of 1967. He lives now in the US, and publishes his articles on the web in both English and Arabic.


(Corona,Calif.) - Economic sanctions are arrogant open acts of war against other nations. Their goal is to devastate the lower and middle classes and to weaken the country. The regime of the imposing country believes that its economy is superior and is so influential that other countries are so dependent on it and could not survive without it.

Economic sanctions are deceitfully justified as punishing a ruthless political regime and protecting human rights of an oppressed people. Such people are the most devastated when their economy is hurt while the ruling regime may become more oppressive in its reaction in order to protect and to preserve itself. Case in point is the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children who died due to lack of medicine during the economic embargo after the Gulf War while the Iraqi regime had its own reserve of all kinds of medications stored for itself.

The sanctioning regime hopes that the sanctioned population would hurt so bad that, with some external encouragement and hope for economic relief; they would rise up and topple their own regime. The other scenario is that the military industry of the sanctioned regime becomes so weak and ineffective that the regime would not stand a chance in any military confrontation, similar to what happened in Iraq.

Such scenarios take place in a country that is faced with sanctions by the majority of the international community. On the other hand countries facing partial sanctions rise up to the challenge and become more self-sufficient and more independent. Cuba, with the longest economic embargo, North Korea and Iran are examples of such countries. Due to its large size and important natural resources, Iran had advanced its industry even to achieve nuclear technology.

Due to its leadership in resisting the Zionist expansionist plans in the Middle East, and for supporting the national resistance and liberation groups of Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, and due to its alliance with Iran, Syria was subjected to many Western schemes of regime change. The whole Arab Spring movement has been primarily orchestrated and geared towards regime change in Syria, that is meant eventually to lead to a regime change in Iran; a frontier for Russia and China. Under the justification of protecting the lives of Syrian civilians rebelling against their government and protecting their humanitarian rights, Syria is subjected to economic sanctions imposed first by Western countries then by the Arab League.

Economic sanctions are not new to Syria, who was subjected to such sanctions since mid 1970’s imposed by the US. Since then Syria had risen to this challenge and had developed immunity against sanctions. What is new today is that the Arab League, with many of its member countries, joined by Turkey, had also imposed economic sanctions against Syria. The Arab League, with the leadership of Qatar, has been manipulated and used as a Trojan horse by an American/British/French triad to topple Syrian regime and to inflict the country with a civil war, similar to Libya, in the service of terrorist Israel and the expansionist Zionist plan in the Middle East.

Syrian economy is not dependent nor tied to any Western economy, thus these sanctions have no real effect on Syria. Syria is mainly an agricultural country and thus is mostly self-sufficient except in the technological sector which is filled mainly by Asian countries such as China, India, Russia and Iran. Also Syria has good economic trade with some Latin American countries.

Many neighboring Arab countries such as the Gulf States, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon import and are dependent on Syrian agricultural products. Lebanon and Iraq rejected the Arab League sanction and continue trade with Syria. The mostly desert Jordan shares borders with Syria and is heavily dependent on Syrian food products and water resources. Many Jordanian students study in Syrian universities. Jordan will hurt greatly by the sanctions. So the Jordanian king requested the Arab League to relief Jordan and to be treated as an exception in the sanctions.

Expecting the sanction Syria had withdrawn its money from the rest of the Arab central banks, especially the Jordanian Central Bank, causing a shortage and crises in these banks. Gulf States, especially Qatar and Saudi Arabia, have to compensate these shortages. Food prices in Syrian neighboring countries may double to cover the extra expenses of importing food from other resources. Tourism industry will also suffer greatly. Tourists, who used to travel to neighboring Syria, have now to pay extra for travelling to farther countries.

Some energy companies, who are invested in Syria and now withdrawing, will also suffer greatly for abiding with the sanction. French companies are the largest losers in these sanctions. French Total Oil Company, Lafarge Construction Company, and Airbus Company will lost millions of dollars worth of investment in Syria.

Royal Dutch Shell had also announced its withdrawal from Syria with a loss of 40% shares of oil production; a huge investment in the industry.

Canadian Suncor Energy, the second largest Canadian oil company, had announced cessation of its oil, gas and electricity production in Syria. Suncor had big investments that include 50-50 joint venture with the Syrian General Petroleum Corporation producing about 80 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, and roughly 1,000 barrels of oil per day. Suncor’s cessation will cost the company a lot of money and privileges.

Syria used to export about 150,000 oil barrel per day to European countries, whose revenue comprised roughly 30% of Syria total revenue. The withdrawal of these energy companies and the ban on oil imports from Syria are planned to have a great impact on Syria’s ability to produce and export oil and gas, and thus devastate the country’s economy. Fortunately this is far away from reality and the real loss was to these energy companies and to European consumers, who have now to pay more money to compensate for these losses and to cover the cost of importing oil from more expensive sources.

The withdrawal of these European energy companies had created a golden opportunity for other eager energy companies to fill this vacancy. State-owned companies of countries, who rejected the sanctions, including the China National Petroleum Corporation and India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, had made significant investments in Syrian energy industry offering Syria better deals than their European counterparts. Russia and Iran are expected soon to follow. Iran had already signed an all inclusive trade agreement with Syria last Tuesday December 13th.

Turkey’s role in the Syrian crisis draws a special attention. In the recent past Turkey has improved its trade dealing with Syria tremendously. Now-a-days Turkey had turned its face complete 180 degrees and started criticizing and even directly attacking the Syrian regime. It also seemed that Turkey, a non-Arab country, had occupied the Syrian seat in the Arab League. Turkey had played a great role with Qatar in persuading the Arab League to declare the sanctions against Syria. Turkey was the first to adopt the sanctions by freezing $110 million of Syrian money in its banks, by imposing high taxes on imported Syrian products, and by declaring a safe zone on its Syrian borders to protect what is called Free Syrian Army (FSA); a terrorist group who attack the Syrian army and terrorize Syrian civilians loyal to Bashar Al-Assad.

Turkey’s slap had returned to its face. Turkey has more than $250 million worth of investment in Syria that will be lost. Syria had countered with banning Turkish goods. Turkish sanction came as blessings in disguise to the Syria, whose industry, comprising 27% of its economy, had suffered by the past Turkish/Syrian trade agreement due to the cheap Turkish goods that were favored over the local Syrian goods. After the Turkish sanction the local Syrian industries got revived. Recep Tayyip Ordogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, is faced now with huge criticism from oppositional parties as well as his own accusing him of harboring terrorist group (FSA) in Turkey.

The economic sanctions have important political awakening in the Arab nation in general and the Syrians in particular. The decisions of the Arab League in dealing with the Syrian crisis in particular and with the Arab Spring movement in general, particularly in Libya, Yemen, and Bahrain, had shown the League without any further doubt as a political tool manipulated by the West to oppress Arabs, keep their land divided, and to open their natural resources for theft. It had never served any of the Arab’s national causes. In the primary Arab cause; the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the League had given Israel 10 long years, so far, to respond to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative while not giving Syria more than just one week to deal with its rebels before imposing sanctions. For rebuffing their Peace Initiative major Arab leaders had welcomed Israel to open embassies in the capitals rather than fighting Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

While aggressively and hastily supporting the alleged popular Syrian revolution against the ruling regime the League refuse to accept support petition letters from leaders of genuine popular revolution against very oppressive regimes of Yemen and Bahrain.

When Syrian citizens rallied behind their leadership, the president of the supposed Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun, hurried back to his Western handlers licking their hands begging for more support. He declared that once receiving Syrian leadership he would cut ties with Iran, end arms supplies to Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, and would negotiate with Israel over Golan Heights.

Economic sanctions against Syria are blessings in disguise. Economically they challenged Syrians to become more independent and look for other avenues for trade. The sanctions rather than splitting Syrian from Iran have really pushed Syria deeper into Iran’s arms. They have also awakened Syrian national pride and loyalty to their country and leadership. The realities of many Arab leaders and the Arab League have been clearly exposed as Western puppets.