city:saudis

Interview: Iraq’s Sadr says Saudis, US stoking sectarian tension
▻http://m.france24.com/en/f24-interview/20150615-exclusive-moqtada-al-sadr-says-saudis-obstacle-regional-peace

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPOBjVnxhNk

Moqtada al-Sadr, head of a powerful Shiite movement in Iraq, has called on Saudi Arabia to end its military intervention in Yemen. In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, the cleric accused both Riyadh and the US of worsening sectarian tensions.

[…]

Sadr was interviewed by FRANCE 24’s Michel Kik on June 13, 2015, in the cleric’s office in the Iraqi city of Najaf, in the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq.

In characteristic form, Sadr also lashed out against Washington for “sowing divisions” in the Middle East. “America gives arms to Sunnis, to Shiites, to Kurds, heightening sectarianism and ethnic tensions,” he said.

Syria’s Saudi Jihadist Problem
►http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/16/syria-s-saudi-jihadist-problem.html

The War Nerd: Saudis, Syria, and “Blowback”
►http://pando.com/2013/12/19/the-war-nerd-saudis-syria-and-blowback

The blowback theory rests on the assumption that the Saudis are just rich idiots playing around with things too powerful for them to control. It’s easy to see them as bumpkins who just got lucky by finding the world’s biggest oil reserve under their desert. Those silly Saudis, huh? They just have no idea what they’re stirring up. This is the view of Saudi Arabia you get in the Daily Beast story:

“ Saudi Arabian officials are doing little to try to stop [Saudi jihadis] flying out from the Riyadh airport—a further sign, say Western diplomats, of the Kingdom throwing caution to the wind when it comes to the Syrian civil war. ”

Let’s try a different theory: that the Saudis know exactly what they’re doing. That they are, in fact, geniuses at exporting trouble while keeping the homeland quiet. What other Middle Eastern faction has held power as long as the House of Saud? They’re coming up on a century in control of the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and in that century they’ve buried a lot of groups that looked a lot shinier and more modern, starting with the Al Rashidi, who were more cosmopolitan, tolerant, and adaptable than the Sauds. The Sauds crushed them anyway.