Friday, March 28, 2014

David Kirkpatrick on US-Saudi relations

1) "“Their view of Mr. Obama is that his entire understanding is wrong,” said Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Geneva-based Gulf Research Center who is close to the Saudi monarchy. " The center is funded by the House of Saud and the expert is an advocate of Saudi royal family.
2) "But the Saudi royal family, which draws its legitimacy from an ultraconservative Salafi branch of Islam, has long feared the Muslim Brotherhood because of its rival blend of religion and politics and its effectiveness at political organizing. Saudi officials often quote Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, the former long-serving interior minister: “All our problems come from the Muslim Brotherhood,” he once declared, arguing that the group “has destroyed the Arab world.”"  This account is utterly false.   The Saudis long funded, armed, and sponsored the Muslim Brotherhood and used them against their rivals in the region.  The statement by Prince Nayif came only after Sep. 11 when the relations with the Brotherhood soured.  Nevertheless, the Saudi regime still supports and funds the Muslim Brotherhood in at least Lebanon and Syria.
3) "At a private gathering of Arab security chiefs at the Four Seasons Hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco, two weeks ago, the Saudi interior minister asked every Arab country to outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood".  This was not a private meeting. This was not a meeting of security chiefs. This was a public regular meeting of Arab Interior Ministers. I have better things to do than to count the daily avalanche of errors and fallacies in New York Times dispatches from the Middle East.