| Washington Post | - |
Persian Gulf countries, led by Saudi Arabia, are moving to strengthen their military support for Syrian rebels and develop policy options independent from the United States in the wake of what they see as a failure of U.S.
Syrian conflict: Persian Gulf officials, tired of waiting for U.S., move to boost aid to rebels
(Jason Reed/ Reuters ) - Secretary of State John F. Kerry
prepares to board his aircraft at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington
on Saturday. Kerry is heading to the Middle East for the next week.
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Although the Saudis and others in the region have been supplying weapons to the rebels since the fighting in Syria began more than two years ago and have cooperated with a slow-starting CIA operation to train and arm the opposition, officials said they have largely given up on the United States as the leader and coordinator of their efforts.
Persian Gulf officials weary of waiting for U.S. on Syria
Countries led by Saudi Arabia look to strengthen support for the rebels, independent of the United States.
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What officials described as a parallel operation independent of U.S. efforts is being discussed by the Saudis with other countries in the region, according to officials from several governments that have been involved in the talks.
Unhappiness over Syria is only one element of what officials said are varying degrees of disenchantment in the region with much of the administration’s Middle East policy, including its nuclear negotiations with Iran and criticism of Egypt’s new government.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrives in Saudi Arabia on Sunday on a hastily arranged visit — to include his first-ever meeting with King Abdullah on Monday — that is designed to smooth increasingly frayed U.S. relations with the kingdom.
Kerry will also stop in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Israel, all of which have expressed concerned at what they see as a weakened U.S. posture in the region. The 11-day trip also includes visits to the West Bank, Poland, Algeria and Morocco.
Egyptian state media reported Friday that Kerry will begin his trip with a brief stop Sunday in Egypt, his first visit there since the military ousted President Mohamed Morsi this summer. The State Department declined to confirm the visit.
Officials in several countries that had pledged to support a U.S. strike on Syrian targets after confirmation that President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons described their stunned reaction to Obama’s abrupt decision in late August to cancel the operation just days before its planned launch so he could ask for congressional agreement.
“We agreed to everything that we were asked . . . as part of what was going to take place,” said a senior Saudi official reached by telephone in the kingdom. Instead of the 10-to-12-hour warning before launch that the Americans had promised, the official said that Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan “did not know about [the cancellation]. . . . We found out about it from CNN.”
Although the current policy differences are unlikely to be resolved soon, if at all, the Saudis derive part of their standing as a regional leader from their close ties to Washington. Kerry’s visit, in large part, is designed to publicly stroke that aspect of the Saudi image.
Though Russia and the U.S. are less likely to come to blows figuratively or literally now, there is more likely going to be increased conflicts between Sunni and Shia Muslim nations as a result of what has happened to the now 7 million displaced Sunni Muslims from Syria. Though most are still living in Syria (approximately 5 million) all 7 million have been driven from their homes and property by the violence and death and those wealthy or desperate enough have left Syria entirely to settle elsewhere or in refugee camps in other nations like Jordan and Turkey. As far as irate Sunni nations are concerned this is not over. The revenge on Assad is just beginning and likely will continue to escalate until he is gone along with his government no matter how long this takes by proxy or direct war for years if necessary.
We may be seeing "What many Western Experts on the area" have been warning about for years which is a direct all out war between Sunni Nations against Shia Nations. The most likely war would be a direct one between Saudi Arabia and Iran. But, the way things are presently moving this might be literally all Sunni Nations against Iran. And depending upon which side Iraq and Syria were on it might be the end of Iran with possibly Israel aligning with Saudi Arabia to end Iran. This might be the way this ends up with Iran and Syria blown away at some point in the next 5, 10 or 20 years the way this is presently going. And the U.S. because of it's own financial difficulties caused by bankers in 2008 might not be a part of this conflict. And worse than that, because there are no regulations presently being enforced in regard to the Banking system the U.S. could even have another 2008 recession which might make things even worse in the world and the U.S.
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