Wed May 11, 2011 4:48AM
Interview with Peter Eyre, Middle East consultant from Manchester
The US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia work together to control Middle East borders, regulate commerce and suppress major Shia populations, says an analyst.
In an interview with Press TV, Middle East consultant Peter Eyre gives us reasons why Arab states should resolve their own internal problems and not mix their affairs with the US and Western countries.
Press TV: Starting with Tunisia, we know that during the revolution the Saudi king gave his support to former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. And when he could no longer survive, King Abdullah gave Ben Ali asylum. What message do these actions by Saudi Arabia send to the people of Tunisia and, basically, to the region?
Eyre: Just for your information, you probably know this, most of the leaders in the countries we're talking about are, basically, pro-Western, very American orientated.
The areas where a lot of the conflicts have taken place, one has to evaluate what is the cause behind that unrest which has caused the domino effect throughout the Middle East. Since the meltdown of the economic forum throughout the world, we see a situation now where property is increasing, job losses, people just looking for employment, the cost of living just going through the roof...and with the current conflicts and wars going on, that just ups the price of oil.
The people that become the victim of this are the ordinary people on the street. So when they go out and rally or protest, it's not necessarily about any other issue. It's just the fact that they're venting their frustration like we do here in London. We see massive rallies here also; except in the other countries, that tends to go to violence.
So, all the time we have a pro-American backing by Saudi to force a change.
In my opinion, all the Arab countries should resolve their own problems and find a way around. Certainly, the West should not become involved and you shouldn't use the pro-American banner to try to and achieve a regime change.
Press TV: In Yemen, Saudi Arabia has tried to lead a Persian Gulf Arab country initiative to get President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down; however, one of the main parts of the proposal is immunity for Saleh even after he's killed and tortured so many Yemenis. Why do you think so many Persian Gulf Arab states are insisting on this immunity and what message is this giving to the Yemeni people who are on the streets, practically every day, demanding that dictator steps down?
Eyre: Before we go on to that, I'd like to come back to the Egyptian issue just to get closure on that. Saudis definitely are very pro-American and supporting all the way through on the issues pertaining to Egypt at this point in time.
Sitting in the middle of this is the border with Palestine. It's very critical for Saudi Arabia, America and Israel, of course, to have control of that border. Egypt really has never had sovereignty on the border with Palestine. If anybody wants to cross backwards and forwards there was a three-way conference between the US and Israel, and no doubt Saudi was in there as well. That does play a major part.
Coming back to Yemen, there is a big issue here between Sunni and Shia because in Bahrain you have 61 percent Shia -- which basically are the majority -- and there is no way in the world that the Bahraini government is to allow the Shia to take control of the country.
And so you've got a dictatorship there which, in a smaller way, you can compare with Libya. Of course, there was intervention in Libya but no intervention in Bahrain.
With Yemen, and this is another very big issue - a lot of people don't know this - there are Shias close to the Saudi border. And they have been infiltrating across into Saudi which causes Saudi a lot of concern. They couldn't handle the problem themselves so they went in with their air force and asked the US air force to come in. So there you saw, straight away, collaboration between Saudi and the US.
GMA/AKM
Share this article:
Send to friendPrint this article
No comments:
Post a Comment