Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal thinks arming al-Qaeda linked rebels in Syria is an “excellent idea” – I wonder what his victims would say about that?
In 2012 Saudi Arabia argued for weapons supplies to Syrian rebels despite U.S. concerns about terrorism at the time.
The Saudi request, in many ways reveals their true intentions towards Syria.
Top officials from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab nations were also notably absent from the Arab League summit in Baghdad, where leaders called on Damascus to “adopt” a United Nations plan to stop fighting and begin political dialogue. President Assad has insisted that terrorism must stop before peace is possible…
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who traveled to Saudi Arabia at the time to meet with the King and other Saudi officials, was expected to discuss the Saudi plans to arm the Syrian rebels behind closed doors.
At the time officials previously said the Obama Administration remained opposed to introducing more arms into the civil war conflict that is tearing Syria apart. Despite those concerns the US caved under Saudi pressure and went along with the deal.
Many counter-terrorism experts say Saudi Arabia’s arming of Afghan jihadis in the 1980s, along with the arms and money provided by the US through official and unofficial channels, as a “prime contributor” to the Afghan civil war and the rise of the ultra violent Islamic jihad.
That has led to concerns over the prospect of Saudi Arabia arming Syrian rebels now. “No good can come from this”, say B. Kim of Charlotte, when asked how she felt about such an asinine idea. “I want nothing to do with such madness”, she said.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned that arming the Syrian opposition could invite a repeat of the insurgency and sectarian strife that consumed Iraq for years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and military occupation, that led directly to the death of hundreds of thousands of people in his country. “It will lead to regional and global proxy wars in the Syrian arena,” he said. His assertions turned out to be prophetic.
Jordanian officials said they are unlikely to be able to resist Saudi pressure for long. “We are a non-interventionist country. But if it becomes force majeure, you have to join—this is the story of Jordan,” said one unnamed Jordanian official, in the article by the Wall Street Journal.
That deal between Saudi Arabia and Jordan “mark the first attempt to send in large quantities of weapons to Syria’s rebels”, the article noted. Today both countries are continuing to arms the rebel groups (with a little help from the CIA) many of whom are affiliated with Al-Qaeda and other ultra violent -extremist terrorist groups.
Back then officials didn’t say what sort of arms and weapons Saudi Arabia would propose sending. We know now that included all sorts of weapons , including anti armor and heavy machine guns and bombs.
It is known that the United States has been Saudi Arabia’s leading weapons supplier and the kingdom has since received high-end U.S. weaponry such as F-15 fighter jets, Patriot air-defense systems and Abrams main battle tanks, but anti tank weapons, missiles, grenades, machine guns…etc.
“It looks like we will be funding the terrorists indirectly in this deal, if not directly, if the Saudi’s have their way”, say C. Lopez of Charlotte, N.C. “I certainly don’t like it that American weapons will be used to kill people in Syria”, he said. Certainly we would agree with him on that. Too bad we were unable to convince US officials at the time.
The key event in all that turned out to be a meeting last year hosted by the “Friends of Syria” in Tunisia, which brought together opposition and terrorist supporters from around the world including Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
These people hammered out the secret deal which began the arms funding to Syrians rebels in early 2012.
Saudi’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said at the time, with an excited smile that arming the rebels was “an excellent idea.” (see article: Saudi foreign minister says supporting Syrian opposition is a ‘duty’ http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/31/204429.html ).
That turned out to be nothing short of disastrous for the people of Syria.
Since then tens of thousand of people have died, been killed or seriously wounded in the conflict.