Saudi Arabia has long been a staunch United States ally in the Middle East. Although the two countries values are fundamentally at odds, the US has looked past their differences in the name of energy and regional stability. However, the time may have come for a change in this relationship. Saudi policies aimed at checking Iranian influence have made the kingdom a hindrance to regional stability. By funding and training extremist militias bound for Syria, offering aide to a military autocracy in Egypt, and arguing against the Iranian nuclear agreement, not to mention the grievous human rights violations against its own citizens and those in neighboring Bahrain, Saudi Arabia pushes a volatile region away from peace and long term stability. American support grants a degree of legitimacy and security to the al-Saud regime, thereby giving its actions tacit US support. As shale and other alternative fuels become more prominent in the global market, and US foreign policy begins to pivot towards Asia, the time has come to alter current Middle Eastern alliances. If the US is serious about bringing long-term peace and stability in the region, it must begin to rethink its relationship with one of its oldest allies in the Middle East.
Civil war in Syria served as a proxy battleground for Saudi Arabia and Iran. Claiming to support the rebels because they fight against a brutal dictator, Saudi Arabia has publically supported and funded many rebel groups, including those with ties to terrorist organizations such as Jabhat al-Nusra, and the Islamic State of Iraq. Funding, arming, and training these extremist groups intensifies the violence within Syria. It also reduces the possibility of a moderate Syria after the revolution, as well-armed extremist groups quickly take the place of moderate militias. These groups will not be contained within Syria’s borders, but will spread violence and extremist throughout the region, and possibly the world. The regime’s support of such terrorist organizations is unacceptable and endangers international security.
After the June 30th revolution in Egypt, when the US threatened to end its aid to the Egyptian military, Saudi Arabia offered to more than make up for the loss. The $12billion aide package was an effort to curb the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, who challenges domestic Saudi hegemony, and to gain another friend in the region. Their actions reduced US influence and supported a military government that shows no signs of relinquishing their power to the people. This money has financed a military regime in Egypt responsible for violating basic human rights and killing hundreds of its own citizens engaged in peaceful protest. Military rule has also caused a flare up of violence in the Sinai, threatening the tenuous relations between Egypt, Israel, and Hamas. Saudi Arabia is supporting a regime that endangers both domestic and international stability.
The recent nuclear agreement reached between the P5+1 and Iran is obviously threatening to Saudi interests. If sanctions are permanently lifted on Iran, they will begin selling oil to the global market, threatening Saudi Arabia’s own share in the market. Saudi Arabia has employment estimated at anywhere from ten to thirty percent, and no other developed sectors of the economy other than oil and banking. Without a steady influx of petro-dollars, the Saudi government would be unable to continue its generous program of subsidies that form the basis of the government’s legitimacy. Economic competition could prove disastrous for the Saudi economy, and therefore its political stability. Iran also poses a geo-strategic threat. Iran’s influence can be strongly felt in Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria, and with the new promise of US and European friendship, they seem to have many more friends than Saudi Arabia. Perhaps most importantly, Saudi Arabia fears that a rise in Iranian power will encourage rebellion amongst its own Shia population. Long oppressed and marginalized by Riyadh, Shias in the Eastern Province have been a source of unrest, challenging the Saudi royal family. If encouraged by Iran, they could be a serious problem for Saudi economic and political interests.
Although it is understandable, Saudi attempts to block this deal show them to place their own narrow interests above regional security. Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program are at an all-time high, with Israel threatening unilateral action that would surely thrust the region, and perhaps the entire world, into conflict. Opposing diplomatic progress, halting the regulation of nuclear cites, and even threatening to obtain their own nuclear weapon are not the action a true friend to the US or to the region as a whole. The threat of nuclear war is too serious a topic to be used as a political tool.
Shias within Saudi Arabia have been victims of persecution and oppression since the country’s formation. Although they inhabit the most resource rich area of the country, they suffer from inadequate access to resources, economic opportunity, and basic freedoms. Saudi Arabia has also helped its neighbor, Bahrain, brutally repress Shia uprisings in the name of regional stability and countering Iran. Their blatant disregard for basic rights and human life indicate the lengths the al-Saud family will go to crush any challenger.
Saudi Arabia’s domestic and regional politics show that it has no interest in peace or conflict resolution, let alone democracy and human rights. Instead, its actions are simply calculated to preserve the al-Saud’s influence both within its own borders and throughout the region. In an effort to challenge Iran, Saudi Arabia spreads repression, weapons, and dangerous ideology, escalating conflicts and funding destabilizing groups. If the US is serious about long-term peace and stability in the region, it can no longer support the Saudi regime that brutally oppresses its own people, funds military rule and terrorist militias, and threatens nuclear conflict.
Sofi Smith
Underneath the Kaffiyeh 