by Yusuf Dhia-Allah (News & Analysis, Crescent International Vol. 46, No. 1, Jumada' al-Akhirah, 1438)
The imperialists and their sidekicks first create a crisis to frighten the Arabian potentates in the Persian Gulf and then come with offers to sell them weapons that the latter cannot use.
How many times can you take a bite at the same cherry? Endlessly, it seems, as far as the US and Britain are concerned, especially when it comes to dealing with the tribal monarchies on the western shores of the Persian Gulf. Since they all emerged from the bowels of British colonialism, they are totally dependent on the British, and now increasingly the Americans, for their survival.
The Americans and Brits have drawn up elaborate plans to sell tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons, ostensibly to “save” these regimes from Islamic Iran. The regimes on the list include Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Jordan. There is, however, a caveat; these regimes must cooperate with the Zionist entity and accept the illegal occupation of Palestine.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal on February 15th, the US plan will work something like this. The four regimes are being asked to enter into a military alliance with the Zionist entity. They would share intelligence with Israel to help counter the alleged threat from Iran. The alliance’s home base would be Egypt that together with Jordan already has diplomatic relations with the Zionist lepers. The rulers of Saudi Arabia and UAE are also on kissing terms with the Zionists even if they do not have formal diplomatic relations. And Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said openly that his country’s ties with Saudi Arabia and other “Sunni” Gulf states are excellent. He wants a formal alliance with them to confront the threat from “Shi‘i” Iran! The Saudis and other tribal monarchies have also been peddling the Sunni-Shi‘i line.
The Arabian rulers’ sell out to Zionist Israel has not gone unnoticed in Tehran. Addressing the Sixth International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifa∂ah held in Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned the Arabian rulers on February 22nd against normalizing relations with the Zionist regime. “The occupying regime [of Israel], in an attempt to normalize its situation, has for the first time referred to certain Arabian countries as its allies against the resistance front, instead of describing them as its enemies,” he said.
The Tel Aviv regime “claims that most of the Arabian countries are not the enemies of Zionism or opposed to occupation anymore, but that they share the same phobia about resistance,” President Rouhani added. He warned that normalization of ties between certain Arabian countries and Israel was in fact turning a blind eye to the regime’s crimes in Palestine and other Muslim countries.
These illegitimate regimes are told they face a far greater threat from Iran than they do from the Zionist occupiers of Palestine. Iran, however, has not threatened anyone. In fact, unlike the Zionist regime, Iran has not attacked or invaded any country in more than 250 years. So how can these Arabian potentates fall for such gimmicks? After all, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weapons sold in the past did not guarantee their safety (Obama sold $130 billion worth of weapons to the Arabian regimes); how could more weapons in the hands of the same ill-trained and ill-motivated amateurs make any difference now? Slaves, however, cannot say “no” to their masters.
If there is one constant in their lives, it is fear. The Americans and Britons are constantly playing on it. In fact, they are being deliberately frightened in order to force them to part with their rapidly dwindling reserves, thanks to their policy of keeping the price of oil low.
First it was that evil man Saddam Husayn, a truly appalling figure, breathing down their necks with his oppressive ideology of Ba‘thism that was the bane of monarchies. Had the Ba‘thists not overthrown the monarchy in Iraq — British-installed of course, they were told? Not to worry, Uncle Sam and nephew Charlie were always there to help rescue these potentates. These countries are no more than a tent atop an oil well and a camel tied outside. That the limousine has now replaced the camel and the tent has been converted into a palace has not changed the mindset of these frightened little men. This is because they are illegitimate and have no support among their own masses.
In February 1979, with the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran against the US-backed and installed tyrannical regime of the Shah, these monarchies were grouped together into what came to be called the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It can more accurately be described as the Gulf Conspiracy Council because its main target was the nascent Islamic state on the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf. When Saddam was instigated to act as the imperialist-Zionist attack dog against the first Islamic state in contemporary history, these monarchies lined up behind him. They gave him billions of dollars to try and destroy the only Islamic state. What else could they do? Their incompetent armies are not capable of fighting; they are only good at killing their own hapless people.
Saddam failed miserably in the task assigned to him by his Zionist-imperialist masters. So he was lured into a trap to attack Kuwait. April Glaspie, America’s ambassador in Baghdad at the time, was assigned the task of conveying to Saddam that the US had no position on intra-Arab border disputes. Since Saddam had accused the Kuwaitis of stealing oil from wells that he claimed belonged to Iraq, a dispute had arisen. Soon thereafter, Glaspie left Baghdad never to be seen again in public but with her assurances in Saddam’s mind, he ordered his tanks into Kuwait on August 6, 1990. Within hours, all of Kuwait was occupied with the Kuwaiti rulers fleeing the country together with their multiple wives and as many concubines and as much gold as they could possibly pack into jumbo jets. They barely escaped with the skin of their teeth and arrived in Saudi Arabia, that other bastion of freedom in the region.
The imperialist-Zionist plan was on track. Preparations to attack Iraq had been launched a year earlier. The reason was that with the end of the Iraq-Iran War rather abruptly, Saddam’s army was left with massive quantities of weapons, including chemical and biological weapons that his army had used against Iran’s soldiers and revolutionary guards, in complete violation of the Geneva Conventions. Thousands were killed in these chemical attacks but it did not arouse the conscience of the Western do-gooders. The very thought of such weapons, however, being used against the Zionists was unconscionable. Not that Saddam would even dare contemplate such a step but the imperialists and Zionists were not going to take any chances. The thug of Baghdad had to be defanged.
In January 1991, the US launched a full-scale invasion of Iraq after assembling several hundred thousand troops in the Arabian desert west of Iraq (Bani Saud acted in complete violation of the Prophetic hadith that no non-Muslim power could enter the Arabian Peninsula). All the Arabian regimes now joined Uncle Sam’s crusade against Saddam, the very tyrant they had financed for nearly a decade to destroy the Islamic State of Iran. Tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians were killed even as they fled Kuwait. Immediately, Iraq was subjected to punishing sanctions that resulted in the deaths from starvation and disease of more than 568,000 babies in five years, according to UNICEF report (Leslie Stahl’s interview with Madelaine Albright on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” program, May 12, 1996).
Saddam was defanged but his threat was not eliminated completely because he remained in power. He had to be attacked again. This time it occurred in March 2003, under the auspices of George W. Bush, but without UN Security Council authorization. He was overthrown and all hell broke loose in the tribal-ridden society of Iraq whose consequences are evident in the form of the emergence of al-Qaeda and now its more extreme mutant, Da‘ish (or ISIS/ISIL). The West, it must be noted, is fully behind the emergence and support of Da‘ish in Iraq and Syria.
While the US takes the lion’s share of orders for weapons from the Arabian regimes, Britain is not far behind. Last month, the Western regimes — the US, Britain, and France — highly publicized naval exercises in the Persian Gulf and especially around the Strait of Hormuz. This naked display of force was intended to semd a signal to the Islamic Republic that these Western regimes would come to the rescue of their Arabian client regimes if they were threatened.
Britain has also opened a naval base in Bahrain alongside the US’ Fifth Fleet. While Britain’s Jufair base is tiny — it is actually inside the US naval base — London is increasing its presence in Dubai and Oman. The British weekly, the Economist, that reflects the views of the barons of the City of London, scoffed at British presence in Bahrain. “Britain’s pretensions can seem overblown. America still dwarfs Britain’s presence. Behind the hype, HMS Jufair amounts to little more than a pier inside the sprawling base of America’s Fifth Fleet. Britain’s flotilla of seven warships in the Gulf looks puny next to America’s 40, replete with nuclear-powered aircraft carriers with decks the area of three football pitches. Britain’s admirals operate under American command,” wrote the Economist on February 15th.
Where London enjoys an advantage over any American city is its close proximity to the Muslim East. It is merely five to six hours’ flying time compared to New York’s 13–14 hours. Besides, British merchants and fund managers have successfully peddled London’s status as a global financial capital. Playing on their fears of a non-existent threat from Iran, the British have sucked up a lot of wealth from the Gulf monarchies. They “own” leading football (soccer) teams as well as major London landmarks such as the Shard, the Olympic Village, Harrods, and Chelsea Barracks. Kuwait “owns” City Hall, the seat of London’s mayor.
And then there is the British queen. The honor of a handshake with the British monarch can drive the Arabian rulers into a state of ecstasy. It adds to their prestige in the eyes of their subjects at home and provides them the legitimacy they otherwise lack.
These enemies of Allah (swt), His Prophet (pbuh), and the committed Muslims are actually digging their own graves. They will soon face a fate worse than the one that befell Saddam Husayn when he was hanged like a dog on December 30, 2006.