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Felix Imonti

Felix Imonti

The author studied international relations and economics at UCLA where he was in the African Studies Program.  After graduation, he was a securities broker for…

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The Endless War: Saudi Arabia Goes on the Offensive Against Iran

Saudi Arabia has gone on the offensive against Iran to protect its interests.  Their involvement in Syria is the first battle in what is going to be a long bloody conflict that will know no frontiers or limits.

Ongoing Disorders in the island kingdom of Bahrain since February of 2011 have set off alarm bells in Riyadh.  The Saudis are convinced that Iran is directing the protests and fear that the problems will spill over the twenty-five kilometer long COSWAY into  oil rich Al-Qatif, where The bulk of the two million Shia in the kingdom are concentrated.  So far, the Saudis have not had to deal with demonstrations a serious as those in Bahrain, but success in the island kingdom could encourage the protestors to become more violent.

Protecting the oil is the first concern of the government.  Oil is the sole source of the national wealth and it is managed by the state owned Saudi Aramco Corporation.  The monopoly of political power by the members of the Saud family means that all of the wealth of the kingdom is their personal property.  Saudi Arabia is a company country with the twenty-eight million citizens the responsibility of the Saud Family rulers.

The customary manner of dealing with a problem by the patriarchal regime is to bury it in money.  King Abdullah announced at the height of the Arab Spring that he was increasing the national budget by 130 billion dollars to be spent over the coming five years.  Government salaries and the minimum wage were raised.  New housing and other benefits are to be provided.  At the same time, he plans to expand the security forces by sixty thousand men.

While the Saudi king seeks to sooth the unrest among the general population by adding more government benefits, he will not grant any concessions to the eight percent of the population that is Shia. He takes seriously the warning by King Abdullah of Jordan back in 2004 of the danger of a Shia Crescent that would extend from the coast of Lebanon to Afghanistan.  Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad in Syria, and the Shia controlled government of Iraq form the links in the chain.

When the Arab Spring reached Syria, the leaders in Riyadh were given the weapon to break the chain.  Appeals from tribal leaders under attack in Syria to kinsmen in the Gulf States for assistance could not be ignored.  The various blinks between the Gulf States in several Syrian tribes means that Saudi Arabia and its close ally Qatar have connections that include at least three million people out of the Syrian populations of twenty-three million.  To show how deep the bonds go, the leader of the Nijris Tribe in Syria is married to a woman from the Saud Family.

It is no wonder that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in February that arming the Syrian rebels was an “excellent idea."  He was supported by Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani who said, "We should do whatever necessary to help [the Syrian opposition], including giving them weapons to defend themselves."  The intervention has the nature of a family and tribal issue that the prominent Saudi cleric Aidh al-Qarni has turned into a Sunni-Shia War by promoting Assad’s death.

The Saudis and their Qatar and United Arab Emirate allies have pledged one hundred million dollars to pay wages to the fighters.  Many of the officers of the Free Syrian Army are from tribes connected to the Gulf.  In effect, the payment of wages is paying members of associated tribes.

Here, the United States is not a welcomed partner, except as a supplier of arms.  Saudi Arabia sees the role of the United States limited to being a wall of steel to protect the oil wealth of the Kingdom and the Gulf States from Iranian aggression. In February of 1945, President Roosevelt at a meeting in Egypt with Abdel Aziz bin Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, pledged to defend the kingdom in exchange for a steady flow of oil.

Since those long ago days when the U.S. was establishing Pax Americana, the Saudis have lost their trust in the wisdom or the reliability of American policy makers.  The Saudis urged the U.S. not to invade Iraq in 2003 only to have them ignore Saudi interests in maintaining an Iraqi buffer zone against Iran.  The Saudis had asked the U.S. not to leave a Shia dominated government in Baghdad that would threaten the Northern frontier of the Kingdom, only to have the last American soldiers depart in December 2011.  With revolution sweeping across the Middle East, Washington abandoned President Mubarak of Egypt, Saudi Arabia’s favorite non royal leader in the region.

Worried by the possibility of Iranian sponsored insurrections among Shia in the Gulf States, the Saudis are asserting their power in the region while they have the advantage.  For thirty years, they have been engaged in a proxy war with the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Syria is to be the next battlefield, but here, there is a critical difference from what were minor skirmishes in Lebanon, Yemen, and elsewhere.  The Saudis with the aid of Qatar, and the UAE is striking at the core interests of Tehran; and they have through their tribal networks the advantage over an isolated Islamic Republic.

Tribal and kinship relations are being augmented by the infusion of the Salafi vision of Islam that is growing in the Gulf States.  Money from the Gulf States has gone into the development of religious centers to spread the fundamentalist belief.  A critical part of the ideology is to be anti-Shia.

Salafism in Saudi Arabia is promulgated by the Wahhabi School of Islam.  The Wahhabi movement began in the eighteenth century and promoted a return to the fundamentalism of the early followers of the Faith.

The Sauds incorporated the religious movement into their leadership of the tribes.  When the modern state of Saudi Arabia was formed, they were granted control of the educational system and much else in the society in exchange for the endorsement of the authoritarian rule

When the Kingdom used its growing wealth in the 1970s to extend its interests far from the traditional territory in the battle against the atheistic Soviet Union, the Wahhabi clergy became missionaries in advancing their ideology through religious institutions to oppose the Soviets.  More than two hundred thousand jihadists were sent into Afghanistan to fight the Soviet forces and succeeded in driving them out.

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There is no longer a Soviet Union to confront.  Today, the enemy is the Islamic Republic of Iran with what is described by the Wahhabis as a heretical form of Islam and its involvement in the Shia communities across the region.  For thirteen centuries, the Shia have been kept under control.  With the hand of Iran in the form of the Qud Force reaching into restless communities that number as many as one hundred and six million people in what is the heart of the Middle East, the Saudis see a desperate need to crush the foe before it has the means to pull down the privileged position of the Saud Family and the families of the other Gulf State rulers.

The war begins in Syria where we can expect that a successor government to Assad will be declared soon in the Saudi controlled tribal areas even before Assad is defeated.  The territory is likely to adopt the more fundamentalist principals of the Salafists as it serves as a stepping stone to Iran Itself.  It promises to be a bloody protracted war that will recognize no frontier and will know no limits by all of the participants.

By. Felix Imonti for Oilprice.com

You can reach Felix at: feliximonti@gmail.com


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Leave a comment
  • Ken on August 23 2012 said:
    And once Syria and Iran are overthrown, who is next?
  • Joe Smith on August 24 2012 said:
    Excellent article.
    One thing I am wondering though, is to what extent the Saudis really want Iran defeated rather than just contained
    If tomorrow the mollahs and the Pasdarans were kicked out (one can hope), Iran, would immediately become an ally of West. Iranians are educated,entrepeneurial and hard working. If the shackles of the present regime were removed, their potential is unlimited.
    Then, it would contrast sharply with Saudi. Life in Saudi, even today, is much more restrictive than in Iran. Women can't drive etc etc... But somehow, nobody in the West dwells on it.
    So then, it would be really exposed for the backward society that it really is, ruled by hypocrites ready to do anything to stay in power ( like the mollahs, Assad, etc...
    And Iran would be the main power in the Middle East.
    Food for thought
    And let's not forget that the Saudis are the ones who have been financing all the islamist terrorists organisations to this day for the last 30 years.
    It wasn't iranians who did 9/11
  • Philip Andrews on August 24 2012 said:
    How exactly is Mr Imonti qualified to write about such matters? What is his experience of the Middle East, Arab History and culture etc.?

    I'm not saying he isn't but a cursory glance at his background doesn't reveal any obviously relevant qualifications and/or experience...
  • geral on August 24 2012 said:
    Saudi Arabia is a de facto operative of cia and is also a very dangerous group of sociopathic assassins.


    USA Must Stop Its Global Killing & Torturing Spree (two parts)

    Part One


    Drones are the symptoms of a sick nation (the USA) & forewarns of more atrocities in the making.
    The corrupt and murderous culture of USA is caused by many leaders, including each & every member of Congress who must be held accountable for the crimes that they authorized, sponsored, financed, approved, covered up, committed, etc.:

    http://napoli.indymedia.org/2012/06/28/the-moral-freefall-of-the-united-states-of-america/


    http://www.phillyimc.org/en/node/68776

    http://barbarahartwellvscia.blogspot.com/2011/03/this-congress-of-usa-will-live-in.html


    http://fsm2011.org/ar/depoimento/intelligence-report-castration-of-the-enemy




    Part Two

    Thank you Iran for serving mankind as a model of national courage against the encroaching & threatening forces of the fbi/cia/mossad assassins:

    http://hamsayeh.net/society/2176-amerika-is-dead.html

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/statement.html

    http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v194/__show_article/_a000194-000198.htm
    Americans generally have no clue as to the inhumane spy activities of fbi/cia.

    But the rest of the world does.

    http://hamsayeh.net/images/stories/alphabetical/b/bush-war-crimes-trial.jpg

    The fbi/cia cannot get away with their continuing global murder & torture & crime spree.

    Operation destroy fbi/cia is on.Here's why: Re: torture & murder of humans.

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part4-worldinabo.html

    http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/553264_3378377789694_1013657408_n.jpg

    Most are not awakened to the reality of the macabre usa global program; some don't care; others rejoice in the carnage; while many others participate in the slaughter. USA is among the youngest gov with about 200-400 years in existence, Egypt 5000 years and itself is a dangerous place to try to live, European countries (France and Britain) are about a thousand years in the making of their sickening kingdom/oligarchy, and China in three thousand years still can't respect fundamental human rights including the right to live. In a sense the Oligarchy also rules the USA today and encourages the barbarity that we witness.



    Thus, all nations are ruled by tyrants and sociopaths. The youngest nation on the world stage (pitiful & godless usa)propels all other countries to accept the war ethic because the economic & military forces of usa demand carnage. Even peacemakers are forced at birth to prepare for war against his brothers, and I see no remedy to correct the inhumanity that envelopes us all, especially as the fbi/cia assassins are in complete control here and to a degree abroad.



    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/thelawoftheunite.html



    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/911caneasilyrevi.html
  • Erik on August 24 2012 said:
    Mr. Imonti is the first observer of the Middle East that succinctly tells it like it is: Syria is just one of many proxy comflicts between Salafist Saudi Arabia versus Khoemenist Iran. These two visons of ideological Islam are clashing. I applaud Mr. Imonti for his fine article. My conclusion is that the US needs to stay out of it. Let the region members work it out...
  • Beverly on August 28 2012 said:
    An outstanding article! I have seven cousins who live in Riyadh, one of whom is Syrian, and this sounds like things really are, not the mainstram garbage in the US media. That said, a careful reading will show quite an array of flashing caution lights in regards to the US and their reckless persuit of oil and military might. Indeed even with the lightest hand by the US the strong population growth within Saudi is making Saudi use more and more of it's finite resources for itself. Saudi's educational system of male only religious schools, madrassas, furthers the growing trend towards religious ultra conservatism. Further, readers in the US have little idea how serious tribal affiliations are. The tidy lines drawn by the British mean little in reality. Thoughtful and fair study will disclose important theological differences between the Sunni, Wahabbi or Salafi and Shia Muslims. The US may find oil increasingly expensive in many ways and all the military powers from any side will only wreak havoc.
  • sabasarge on August 28 2012 said:
    Of course geral, everybody knows the Mossad is behind........everything!
    What a fool.
    Otherwise, excellent article, though I definitely agree with the comments above by Joe Smith...the Saudi's are not our friends, period
  • realityexpress on August 29 2012 said:
    Iran has not invaded any country for over 300 years. If you tell them that you are going to give them democracy with at the minimum, use of micro nuclear BOMBS I.E. DEPLETED URANIUM devices and to date 6000000 IRAQI , Afghani,pakistani and iranian civilian deaths and thereafter steal there property and install JP Morgan executives in government because they are not BUYABLE with your greenbacks then they will say your attempting to do so will destroy you, that is a very calm and civilised response. WHO is ranting. Who stands to gain financially with BOMBS for democracy. WHO by way of nature loves to wage war if business does not go to plan.i.e government officials do not sell their souls? Who has a history of false flag operations? Whose economy and morals are on the higher ground? Whatever happened to the belief of an eye for an eye? Why not take German TAXES as an ongoing tax to payback NAZI warcrimes if the German land itself is not deemed good enough to annex? William Shakespear came to fame as he so eloquently explained in the Merchant of Venice i.e. Shylock demanding a pound of flesh in return for money lent on interest for those who could not pay back on time. But IRAN can pay and buy products and give jobs to its youth because it is blessed with real money so how long will our mask stay on? INVADE INVADE lets get some real money before everyone realises our paper musical chase is the asset coffers of PRIVATE BANKS run by a family of SHYLOCKS. When the borders of ISRAEL reaches those stated in the revised,revised,revvised.........versions of the Bible then that is the signal to the jews of the 12 tribes of ISRAEL that God has given them their land back. That is why the white/european/zionist jew who is not a jew but an imposter jew as he is not linked to the 12 tribes of Israel which actually live in peace in Iran,iraq,syria,lebonon etc.. is HYSTERICAL about attaining those borders so that the 12 tribes are fooled into coming back to ISRAEL. The stage would then be set for their MESSIAH the chief of all the imposters= ANTICHRIST to come. THE ANTICHRIST is choreographing the stage from behind the scenes until he is confident to arrive in the physical form. That is when we expect the real Christ JESUS SON OF MARY to return to settle the case. It is time to WAKE up from the illusion overdose and search for the truth. Does not meen you cannot pay your mortgage or whatever FIX you are into therefore go and do an armed robery to finance yourself. Does it?Who has used a nuclear weapon on humans and is trigger happy to have a monoply to continue doing so? People and nations of the world just want honest money thats all no funny money. Nathan Rorhchild famously said he did not care who rule the country as long as you give him the money supply. Jesus son of Mary famously kicked out those evil Shylocks moneychangers from the temple as famously quoted in the Bible.

    Israel wants to be the ruling state in the world and thereby allow the Antichrist to finally come out from behind the scenes. The 12 tribes of Israel are being duped and they dont really appreciate jews who are not really jews. But those imposter jews are being choreographed by the greatest Imposter of all time,ANTICHRIST. What is good he will make look bad and what is bad he will make look good. David Copperfield is a new born baby in comparison to the master of all imposters with a PHD in deception. Inorder to do so they have to fool USA to attack Iran by whatever means i.e. by hook or crook. When they do so OIL price will go through the roof as the US dollar collapses. Israel will then eventually SAVE an imploding USA by helping them like the US helped Britain in the second world war,

    by intervening militarily at the right time and place with the appropriate means. Thereafter taking over the batton as the new ruling state of the world. The world will have to bow down an lick the member of choice of the Antichrist inorder to receive oil or else collapse and allow eager hyenas with mouths watering to invade and plunder. Welcome to to an attempt at forming a new World order! This explains why the IMF will impose sanctions and stop any loans of printing press money and ability to trade globally on any third world countries who attempt to set up effective alternative energy and gold and silver as real money. The world of the moneychangers is real, the anger of Jesus son of Mary was real and will be real real when he returns. Either you are with him or against him the choice is always YOURS. Time to wake up and give the Pied Piper a growl. Putin on the other hand represents the CHRISTIAN orthodox church and they too are waiting for Jesus Son of Mary to eventually come on the scene. The Russians are part of an alliance axis opposing NATO the military wing of the imposter state of Israel. As long as the spiritual aspect of your heart is still alive there is hope.We appeal to you to wake up and save yourselves, your families from the impending fire.
  • NA on September 07 2012 said:
    @realityexpress, I've read a lot of comments about the Middle East and though I respect your right to your opinions, you're a rambling IDIOT...stay in your closet!
  • geral on November 29 2012 said:
    Saudi Arabia is controlled by fbi/cia/dod. Now this:

    "The US is losing even a bigger war at home where a veteran dies by suicide every 80 minutes."
    http://dawn.com/2012/03/28/losing-war-one-veteran-every-80-seconds/






    The types of crimes committed by the fbi/cia/dod,etc., as I have witnessed over the course of my lifetime are not new to mankind; indeed, for as long as man has walked on the face of the earth he has been confronted with his own savagery and inhumanity to fellow man. War has become legal; fbi/cia covert intelligence operations (including mass murder and other assassinations & tortures) are well known by many but never spoken about in polite conversations because they are also legal by awful custom. Thus, the end game for man is now being shaped by the most barbaric feature of his character: man's criminal urge to destroy one another for myriad purposes. Mark Twain perhaps captured this truth as he said,


    " A crime preserved in a thousand centuries ceases to be a crime, and becomes a virtue. This is the law of custom, and custom supersedes all other forms of law."





    The recent wars are paid for largely by the lives of (and taxed on the backs of) the poor .

    Send the senators (like Lindsey Graham, et al) into battle on the front lines to remove the hidden bombs and see how long the war would last.
    Other candidates for the proposed congressional bomb squad battalion are found in the marble hallways of Congress and specifically from here:



    http://sosbeevfbi.ning.com/profiles/blogs/this-congress-of-the-usa-will



    War not worth fighting by a USA not worth defending


    The awful irony of our time is that the three official branches of government are now overthrown by the unofficial fourth branch, Administrative Agencies.



    INTEL OVERTHROW OF USA GOVERNMENT:

    http://lissakr11humanelife.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/collapse-of-the-constitutional-government-of-the-united-states-of-america-by-geral-sosbee



    USA UNWORTHY TO DEFEND:

    http://www.indymedia.org.au/2012/11/07/united-states-unworthy-to-defend


    http://sosbeevfbi.ning.com/m/discussion?id=2179778:Topic:942


    USARMY AND USO EXPOSED:

    http://sosbeevfbi.ning.com/profiles/blogs/corruption-of-army-and-uso?xg_source=activity

    POLICE STATE:

    http://archive.indymedia.org.nz/otherpress/83133/fbi-atrocities-global-police-state

    MORAL FREEFALL; ABUSE OF VETERANS:

    http://antwerpen.indymedia.org/node/5389

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