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Washington sets sights on Iran, Saudi
Arabia
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - With the United States having won the
first phase of its war on terror by driving the Taliban
out of Afghanistan, diplomatic sources in the Persian
Gulf states and the Middle East are now convinced that
before it launches any aggression against Iraq,
Washington will first attempt to create instability in
Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The sources say that
Washington aims to create internal turmoil within these
two countries - the most influential in their respective
regions - to lessen their political clout, which would
then allow the US to pursue its goals in their regions.
For their part, Iran and Saudi Arabia will intensify
their efforts to protect their interests.
Iran has a tradition of being the cultural leader of
the Persian plateau, but it lost its position
with the emergence of Islam. Other political and
military revolutions also overshadowed its position.
However, the 1979 Islamic revolution signaled the
cultural revival of Iran, and after the breakup of
Soviet Russia in 1991, Central Asian republics naturally
gravitated toward Tehran, and since then it has actively
courted them.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is
the leader of the Wahhabite form of Islam, which
is particularly anti-US, and in this capacity it
supports movements for Islamic revival all over the world.
The logical climax of these movements is jihad.
(These movements define jihad as the struggle to
uproot man-made systems and install divine guidance on
earth.) The obvious result of this school of thought
is controversy, conflict and war. Palestine, Kashmir
and the Philippines are prime examples, and Saudi Arabia
has openly funded the Philippines' Moro National
Liberation Front, the Hamas in Palestine and the
Lashkar-i-Taiba in Kashmir.
In the past, these
movements had limited goals in which the US was
tolerated. After September 11, US authorities realized
that Afghanistan served as a base camp for all of these
organizations and that many of their leaders were in
contact with al-Qaeda. The US thus determined that these
organizations were a threat to its interests.
Since Islamic scholars are the main driving
force of Saudi society, Riyadh could not suddenly cut
off its ties with these Islamic movements in other
countries. At the same time, there is some support for
the groups within the Saudi royal family and the kingdom
is the main supporter of suicide attacks on Israelis.
The Saudi ambassador in London, Ghazi Algosaibi, is
known for his Arabic poems in praise of suicide bombers.
With Saudi Arabia increasingly
equating its policies with the thinking of Islamic
scholars, the decline in US-Saudi relations has therefore
begun. Saudi religious figures have been barred from
traveling to some Western countries, and US Democratic Senator
Joseph Liebermann has accused Riyadh of providing
financial support to Hamas and other Palestinian
resistance groups, and called for the funding to be
stopped.
At the same time, a prominent US
think tank has termed Saudi Arabia an enemy of US
interests. According to reports, a briefing last month for a
top Pentagon advisory panel depicted the long-time US
Gulf ally as an emerging enemy to the US and a backer
of terrorism, sources familiar with the briefing
said. Saudi Arabia was a key US ally in the 1991 Gulf
War against Iraq and has bought billions of dollars
in American arms. It still provides bases for US forces
on its soil.
The sources, including
former US officials, confirmed a Washington Post report
that an analyst from the independent Rand Corporation
urged the US to press Riyadh to stop
funding fundamentalist Islamic outfits around the world and to halt
anti-US and anti-Israeli statements in the
kingdom. Pentagon officials declined to comment directly on
the briefing to the panel which advises the Pentagon
on defense policy, but they stressed that the board
did not represent the official views of the US government.
The sources declined to provide details of the meeting,
but the Post reported direct quotes from Rand
Corporation analyst Laurent Murawiec who, it said, provided a
harsh assessment of Saudi Islamic fundamentalism at a
time when Washington is preparing military plans
for a possible invasion of Iraq to oust President Saddam
Hussein.
"The Saudis are active at every level of
the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from
cadre to foot soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader,"
the Post reported Murawiec as saying. "Saudi Arabia
supports our enemies and attacks our allies." The briefing urged
US officials to target Saudi oil fields and overseas
financial assets if the Saudis refused to comply,
according to the Post
The situation in Saudi
Arabia is having an effect on the region. According to
reports, in a recent meeting between Jordanian King
Abdullah and US President George W Bush, the monarch
maintained that due to current Saudi policies, Jordan
remained isolated and would be placed in a difficult
position if the US tried to use its land to attack Iraq.
The king reportedly said that Jordan would face internal
political turmoil whipped up by Islamic movements, and
externally it would have no support from its neighbors.
At a time when friction is simmering between
Saudi Arabia and the US, Iran has emerged as a key
player and a threat to US interests. Tehran has taken
Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan into
its fold. The province of Herat, in the west of
Afghanistan on the Iranian border, has now become a
sanctuary for Iranian intelligence bent on countering US
interests in the areas. And at a time when the Afghan
government is considering action against the governor of
Herat, Ismail Khan, Iranian president Khatami is
visiting Afghanistan this week. Sources said that this
visit itself would create a split among the ruling
coalition in Kabul. Iran has pledged US$550 million to
help rebuild Afghanistan.
Observers say that
Iran has played its cards intelligently, and that France
and Germany will become the main focus of its external
policies as it seeks to find a replacement for the loss
of possible future US commercial ventures in Central
Asia.
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
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