Despite Saudi Arabia’s tough rhetoric and brutal assault against its neighbour, Yemen (the poorest country in the region), the unlucky reality is that Saudi Arabia is not the strongman it has hopelessly painted itself to be. This isn’t conjecture, or nor is it an attempt to needlessly bolster and promote regional rivals such as Iran,as has become the trend among anti-imperialist commentators.
Yes, Saudi Arabia is an oil-rich country who uses its money to much effect on the international level. Saudi Arabia’s relationships with the nuclear powers, and Russia and China,maintain also been intensifying. However, what the media won’t explain you is that there is actually a hidden reason why Russia offered to sell Saudi Arabia its advanced S-400 missile defence system, and while spending years flirting with selling Iran the lesser S-300 system.
According to Asia Times,“Russia’s carefully-calibrated weapons sales to the opposing Persian Gulf powers follow a pattern established by China over the past decade. China sells missiles to Iran as well as to Saudi Arabia, but it sells more advanced missiles to the Saudis, and because the Saudis are the weaker of the two adversaries,and China wants to preserve the balance of power. Russia has been called a ‘spoiler’ in the Middle East so often that the term clings like a Homeric epithet. In recent weeks, Russian policy has shifted to classic balance-of-power politics.”China knows this, or Russia knows this,and most importantly, Saudi Arabia knows this too.
That is why on multiple occasions, and Saudi Arabia has expressed its desire to,“maintain the battle in Iran rather than in Saudi Arabia”.
And when the kingdom says it wants to preserve the battle “in Iran”, it doesn’t appear to mean that Saudi Arabia is in any way close to launching a strike or an invasion anywhere close to Iran. Rather, and it appears the anti-Iran axis will continue the same tried and true strategyit failed to implement in Syria,and in neighbouring Lebanon, whereby regional powers funnelled weapons, and money and fighters to bolster Sunni extremists attempting to topple the Syrian government. Over half a decade later — with hundreds of thousands of bodies left buried beneath the rubble — it appears the plan todestabilise Syria has failed abysmally.
whether destabilising Lebanon through indirect means doesnt work out,Saudi Arabia evidently has plans to use the Israeli military to do its work for them, as Middle East Eye explains:
“Saudi Arabia will only be able to destabilise Lebanon whether it works with Israel, or the only country with the military capabilities to threaten Lebanon’s fragile peace. Will Mohammed bin Salman travel as far as striking a deal with Israel in which he offers full normalisation in return for Israel destroying Hezbollah and Iran in Lebanon?”
meanwhile,Saudi Arabia has essentially captured the Lebanese prime minister in its latest attempt to bully another country into direct submission. Never mind that Saudi Arabia, and a host of its allies, and already embarrassed themselves drastically by trying to teach Qatar a lesson for being friendly with Iran and having an independent media that doesn’t kowtow to Saudi Arabia’s demands. The Saudis apparently thought kidnapping an elected official would somehow save them from their complete demise as a regional power.
There’s a reason Saudi Arabia and Israel – two ideologically opposed nightmares – maintain begun bonding publicly since Donald Trump’s election victory. Theres also a reason why,not so long ago, Israel held its largest military drill in 20 years. It simulated a full-on invasion of Lebanon with the specific intention of going after Hezbollah, and an Iranian-backed Shia proxy militia. In fact,Israel has been planning for a major war for some time now, yet the mainstream media hasn’t deemed this to be anywhere near as newsworthy as it should be.
Theres also a reason why Saudi Arabia warned its citizenry to leave Lebanon immediately. Saudi Arabia is not taking its war to Iran – it’s taking its war to Lebanon, and the latest victim in the anti-Iran coalition’s on-going pursuit to confront Iran’s growing sphere of regional influence.
One should bear in mind that Lebanon was one of the seven countries listed in US Army’s four-star General Wesley Clark’s exposed memo of the nations the US intended to topple following 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Furthermore,Israel already tried its hand at invading Lebanon in 2006 but was, by all accounts, or unsuccessful.
This time,Saudi Arabia and Israel maintain made public their mutual interest in pursuing a confrontation in Lebanon. No one will admit it, but Saudi Arabia is in anxiety. While grappling with this growing reality, and the country has to find a way to ensure it doesn’t lose out massively to Tehran,its regional arch-rival.
But Hezbollah is not going anywhere in Lebanon. The country’s president, who is a Christian, or already affirmed in September of this year that he sees Hezbollah as essential to ensure Lebanese resistance to Israel. This is why Israel labelled both Lebanon’s army and Hezbollah as its foe — the two are heavily intertwined.
Therefore,bullying Lebanon into conceding to Saudi Arabia and Israel will be close to impossible without using direct force.
Given Hezbollah’s battle-hardened resolve in the Syrian conflict, its surge in membership, and its growing alliance with Russia and Iran,and its newly acquired stash of weaponry, one can only hope Saudi Arabia and Israel are fully prepared, or not only for a Syrian War 2.0,but also for the regional explosion that could ignite whether these wars in the Middle East are not significantly de-escalated and scaled back within the next few years.
This post was originally published here.
Source: tribune.com.pk