by Abu Dharr (Opinion, Crescent International Vol. 47, No. 3, Sha'ban, 1439)
Last month (April 15) the Arabian rulers held their summit meeting in the family kingdom of Bani Sa‘ud. From the inception of the Arab(ian) League on orders from Britain and with its blessings, it has been a political performance festooned with meager monarchs and paltry presidents massaging their extravagant egos on one extreme or trading tirades against each other on the other. In both cases, never has there been anything positive or progressive about this sporadic meeting of heads of state. The latest one adds to its farce performance.
The senile Saudi son-of-Sufyan christened this Arabian summit meeting as, believe it or not, “the Quds Summit.” Hypocrisy has reached unparalleled summits! These heads of state are unloading tons of money for the Zionists to claim al-Quds as the eternal capital of Israel while at the same time unloading loads of words to declare that al-Quds should not have the American embassy moved there, in a gesture to expunge the loudmouth statements released by the king’s out of control son MBS. Another two-faced facade of that summit is the hoisting of the flag of the Syrian Arab Republic at the entrance of the conference building when no invitation was sent to that country’s president to attend the summit. Syria’s seat at the summit lay vacant. If these Arabian royals were honest with themselves they should have invited Bejamin Netanyahu or Donald Trump to sit in that empty chair! And then, General ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, “president” of Egypt, began criticizing Islamic Iran without having the testosterone to call it by name. The Jordanian monarch-minor evoked the Hashemite mandate of al-Quds. What planet is he living on? Or is he appealing to Recep Erdogan and his channels of communication with both the Saudis and Israelis to bring back the good old days of his treacherous, CIA-employed father, the late and forgotten pintsize King Husayn. Syria was not alone in its exclusion from the Arabian summit; Qatar was also absent. And dare one bring to mind an intelligent discussion and debate about the latest Gulf crisis (the rift between Saudi and Qatar Arabians)? The financial stakes are much too high. Money dictates their muteness.
What about the timing of this Arabian summit? On the Islamic calendar it began on the day of al-Isra’ wa-al-Mi‘raj, or a day after. On the political calendar it came a day after a team of investigators were supposed to arrive in Syria to ascertain whether chemical weapons were used in Douma, and the day when there were antiwar demonstrations in many countries. On the military calendar it came the day after the combined attack by Britain, France, and the US against “military” targets in Syria. Perhaps these kings and presidents were preparing to cheer an imperialist-Zionist military victory over the Asad “regime”! Instead of toasting themselves to an imperialist-Zionist victory they were being toasted by the results of that anticlimax.
Let us try to steer through their muddled minds. They and their imperialist advisers and Zionist consultants are living off false projections. They look at the regional map and see that Turkey is in control of areas in northern Syria. They interpret that as a setback for Islamic Iran and Hizbullah. They fail to see that Turkey’s entry into Syria was done when Ankara rearranged its politics more closely with Isla-mic Iran and Russia.
These Arabian heads of state (tails of imperialism and Zionism would be more accurate) watch Israel bomb Syria and they cheer such aggression thinking that Israel is contributing to the weakening of Syria. It doesn’t occur to them that whatever material losses are sustained due to Israeli bombing raids strengthens the resolve of the Syrian, Arab, and Muslim masses to side with the victims of Israeli aggression. The Zionist Satan whispers to them that the Russian ruble and the Iranian touman are losing their value and with their crude minds they cannot figure out that all the imperialist and Zionist policies of sanctions and boycotts amount to an inoculation that will immunize and consolidate the economies of Russian and Iran.
The Arabian crowned heads watched the “sneak attack” by the US, Britain, and France against Syria on the day of al-Isra’ wa-al-Mi‘raj gleefully thinking that the end is near for Syria. Little do they realize that they themselves are living on borrowed time. Why can’t these military behemoths fight like real men? Why do they attack other sovereign countries under the cover of night? In 1956 Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt; that catapulted Egypt to become the most popular Arab country. In 2018, Britain, France, and the US attack Syria. Is it unexpected to foretell that Syria is on its way to becoming the most popular Arab country? Tripartite aggressions have their way of boomeranging against the perpetrators.
All of these dynamics that are in high gear would have us draw some lessons from the various theaters of operation in the Muslim world. In the 1980s, the US supplied the Afghans with Stinger missiles to bring down Russian military aircraft over Afgha-nistan. Would it be out of the question to ask why can’t this policy of supplying anti-aircraft (shoulder held missiles) apply to the anti-Israeli resistance in Syria and Lebanon?
The mainstream media wants everyone to think that the choreographed attack on Syria was done by nation-states Britain, France, and the US. The unspoken other half of this stage-managed attack was done with the connivance of the tribal states Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
President Trump, whose tweets appear to be stiffer than his Tomahawks, needs to begin to think about two things: (1) to instruct his advisers to learn Russian because if he continues down this road of military friction and confrontation he will have to, in due course, apologize to the Russians for his military miscalculations and policy blunders in Russian; and (2) to brush up on his math — news reports have it that the missiles, over a hundred of them that were launched to destroy chemical warfare targets, cost $224 million. Was it worth that amount to destroy three buildings Mr. Trump? Where is your business savoir-faire Mr. Trump?
Or should we attest to your business shrewdness and say that it was worth $224 million to divert national and international news away from the media juggernaut that is quickly closing in on you because of your scandals: sexual immorality on one side and the political foxtrot with the Russians on the other side?
As the Arabian skulls-of-state were meeting in ¸ahran (Dhahran, about 250 km from the Islamic Republic of Iran) instead of Riyadh, where previous summits were held, the family Arabians’ armed forces were conducting military exercises in the Persian/Arabian Gulf. Twelve of these tribal states were operating joint military exercises in what appears to be a signal of intentions against the Islamic Republic and not against the Zionist regime. That’s on the military front; on the propaganda front, articles are appearing in the media of these overwhelmed officials with an unmistakable content: peace with Israel and war with Iran. A news site called al-Riyadh led with the following title, “The Summit at Dhah-ran… Peace with Israel and confrontation with Iran.” The long and short of the article is: whoever rejects peace with Israel is in the service of Iran.
There you have it from the horse’s mouth. Does anyone need further proof of the perfidy and nifaq of Bani Sa‘ud, Bani Khalifah, Bani al-Íabah, Bani Thani, along with their master Bani Isra’il?
They can never inflict more than a passing hurt on you; and if they fight against you, they will make an about turn [fleeing away from you], and will be denied [ultimate] victory (3:111).