Saudi call for Iran bombing – just the tip of the iceberg?
Of all the competing Wiki-leaks, the one about which least is likely to attract much further attention is that which allegedly stems from the Saudi King.
The US diplomatic telegram states baldly that King Abdullah urged the US to bomb Iran. At one level, not much surprise there.
Historic Persian Arab rivalry renders such a demand almost inevitable, particularly given Tehran’s potential for developing a nuclear device.But the revelation came at the very moment that King Abdullah, at 86, was entering a New York clinic for an operation to deal with a life threatening blood clot.
It is rare indeed for the secretive Saudi state to discuss the Monarch’s health.
So for such a condition to be admitted (albeit with the claim that the operation had been a success) may indicate a greater concern than usual.
The King’s successor, 84 year old Prince Sultan also suffers ill-health. The next in line, the Interior Minister Prince Naif is also said to be not a well man.
Only three weeks ago, the King put his 57 year old son Mutaib in charge of the Saudi National Guard – an office he had previously held himself.
Very little objective reporting is ever achieved in or about the Saudi Kingdom. Those who attempt it rarely secure a return visa.
Telling truth to Saudi power can be a risky game. Consequently it remains one of the most under reported countries on earth.
It is no secret that the Afghan Taliban was originally established with Saudi cash and CIA training. The intent was for the Taliban to render the Soviet occupation unsustainable.
The ploy proved more successful and ultimately longer lasting than either the Saudis or the US could have hoped or feared. No one knows for sure how much Saudi cash still fuels the Taliban.
What we do know is that the Saudis openly established and still fund hundreds of radical madrassas in neighbouring Pakistan.
The Saudi branch of the Sunni Islamic faith is committed to the pursuit and expansion of Wahabism – one of the most radical courses known within the Islamic faith.
Only last month it was revealed that Saudi cash had funded the publication and circulation of some 5,000 copies of a radical Islamic book in a network of UK weekend Muslim schools.
Who rules Saudi Arabia matters acutely in the current struggle between mainstream moderate Islam and the radical forms endorsed by the Saudi Royal family.
King Abdulla is described by Saudi watchers as a ‘reformer’. It’s a tricky concept in a country that still forbids women to drive and discriminates against them in other far reaching ways.
It’s a tricky concept with such a woeful record more generally on human rights.
Some of the candidates for Kingship in the ‘younger’ generation are described by one former UK Ambassador to Saudi, to whom I have spoken, as ‘hardliners’.
Hang on to your seats, an awkward period may be at hand in the Saudi Kingdom. A call for the bombing of Iran could prove to be the least of it says my contact.