Saudi Arabia: Hates Iran, But Loves Al Qaeda--And Relies On Israel

I already posted earlier today that Arab World Agrees With Israel--Iran Is More Urgent Than A Palestinian State, which makes sense from the viewpoint of keeping the status quo--particularly Sunni Arab dominance vis-a-vis Muslim non-Arab Shiites.

On the other hand, based on a small snippet reported in passing by The New York Times, we see that Saudi Arabia still supports Al Qaeda--in a big way:

Saudi donors remain the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda, and the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a generous host to the American military for years, was the “worst in the region” in counterterrorism efforts, according to a State Department cable last December.

Grant Lawrence notes that The New York Times does not link to the cable it is quoting from, and goes on to point out:

As the WikiLeaks Embassy Cables show the Saudi King has been urging an attack on Iran. The Saudis are worried about Iran gaining superiority in the region. The King doesn't seem to be worried about triggering a World War or even a nuclear exchange. He doesn't care how many people will die.

Instead the Saudi's are busy keeping al Qaeda well funded so they can blow up an American target. Now their support of terrorism should put Saudi Arabia at the top of the list as a terrorist nation and possibly open it up for an American invasion.

We know that the hijackers on 9/11 were nearly all Saudis, but the United States invaded Afghanistan. Even though the al Qaeda network was known to be well supported by Saudi Arabia.

The US does have a huge blind spot when it comes to our 'moderate friends' the Saudis--but Saudi Arabia's fear of Iran is connected to its support to Al Qaeda.

Lee Smith puts that into context in his book The Strong Horse, that Saudi support for Al Qaeda is not about killing Americans:

...with the Islamic Republic of Iran recuperating from its decadelong war with Iraq and ascendant throughout the region, the Arab states once again turned to Saddam as a stalwart defender of Sunni power. The Sunnis' other way to deter Tehran was to back the same militant organization that threatened to topple Arab regimes, Al Qaeda.

And just to show how schizophrenic the Mideast can be:

Once the Americans deposed Saddam and dealt a withering blow to Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Arabs had lost both their local security pillars, and the Saudis and the Egyptians found they had not choice but to leave their fate in the hands of Israel--the Zionist entity that they had warred against for sixty years--to protect them from Iran.

Actually, if you want to talk about supporting terrorist groups in the Middle East, Michael Rubin is asking Will Obama Fund Hezbollah? After all, Congressman Howard Berman has lifted the hold on US funding for the Lebanese Armed Forces. Rubin writes:

I just returned from Lebanon, where I visited an array of pro-sovereignty Lebanese officials, and also spent a day in Hezbollah strongholds in south Beirut and southern Lebanon. It is an open secret among Lebanese of all political stripes that Hezbollah has infiltrated the Lebanese Armed Forces. The only figures who objected to such a characterization were those who stood to benefit financially from the provision of the aid.

And now Ya Libnan is reporting on the weapons the US is supplying Lebanon/Hezbollah:

The Army Command said in a statement today, that “under the U.S. aid program for the Lebanese Army, the army Logistics division received through the port of Beirut, several 155 mm howitzers, other equipment and various types of ammunition”. The command pointed out that this comes “as part of the total U.S. aid package that is allocated for the Army.”

Those howitzers are not going to be pointed at Iran--nor Syria, for that matter. So just whom does the US think those weapons are going targeted?

Which all just goes to show that we don't need Wikileaks to know how messed up the Middle East is.

Technorati Tag: Saudi Arabia.