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Friday 18 February 2011

Is there a realignment underway in the Middle East?

DEBKAfile have a fascinating article entitled 'Deep US-Saudi rift over Egypt: Abdullah turns to Tehran'. Take a read of it and worry and wonder why The Guardian and the BBC have not covered this story...
'The conversation between President Barack Obama and Saudi King Abdullah early Thursday, Feb. 10, was the most acerbic the US president has ever had with an Arab ruler, debkafile's Middle East sources report. They had a serious falling-out on the Egyptian crisis which so enraged the king that some US and Middle East sources reported he suffered a sudden heart attack. Rumors that he had died rocked the world financial and oil markets that morning and were denied by an adviser to the ruling family. Some Gulf sources say he has had heart attacks in the past.

Those sources disclose that the call which Obama put into Abdullah, who is recuperating from back surgery at his palace in Morocco, brought their relations into deep crisis and placed in jeopardythe entire edifice of US Iran and Middle East policies.

The king chastised the president for his treatment of Egypt and its president Hosni Muhbarak calling it a disaster that would generate instability in the region and imperil all the moderate Arab rulers and regimes which had backed the United States until now. Abdullah took Obama to task for ditching America's most faithful ally in the Arab world and vowed that if the US continues to try and get rid of Mubarak, the Saudi royal family would bend all its resources to undoing Washington's plans for Egypt and nullifying their consequences.

According to British intelligence sources in London, the Saudi King pledged to make up the losses to Egypt if Washington cuts off military and economic aid to force Mubarak to resign. He would personally instruct the Saudi treasury to transfer to the embattled Egyptian ruler the exact amounts he needs for himself and his army to stand up to American pressure.

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debkafile's intelligence sources add that replacement aid for Egypt was not the only card in Abdullah's deck. He informed Obama that without waiting for events in Egypt to play out or America's response, he had ordered the process set in train for raising the level of Riyadh's diplomatic and military ties with Tehran. Invitations had gone out from Riyadh for Iranian delegations to visit the main Saudi cities.

Abdullah stressed he had more than one bone to pick with Obama. The king accused the US president of turning his back not only on Mubarak but on another beleaguered American ally, the former Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri, when he was toppled by Iran's surrogate Hizballah.'
Does this story reflect so badly on Barack Obama that The Guardian and BBC will not report it?

3 comments:

andrew said...

I'm slowly piecing together a similar kind of analysis. My fear is that slowly a starnglehold is being placed on Israel. With what many are seeing as the emerging situation in Turkey, changes in Lebanon and the threat to Syria that is the north covered. Then we have the situation in Egypt and as you've observed, the worrying thaw in relations between Saudi and Iran, brought about by US handling of Egypt. Add to this the under reported insurgency in Sinai there is a very cobustable mix. Given the default report about Israel and the poor analysis connecting the dots, Israel risks further isolation if they act unilaterally.

Worrying times indeed

Span Ows said...

The DEBKA link is dead...

Anonymous said...

Off topic , your site is taking a long time to be engaged on my computer , also some discouraging deadness and flickering going on.I am having no problems elsewhere , suggest you check if your traffic is down.