Friday, September 17, 2010

The Saudi Arms Deal: The U.S. Stirs Persian Gulf Waters


by Rannie Amiri
Global Research

"....As The Sunday Times reported in a June 2010 article titled “Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites,” U.S. defense sources stated that Saudi Arabia had agreed to stand down its air defenses and allow Israel use of a narrow stretch of airspace should they decide to conduct bombing raids into Iran.

The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way … This has all been done with the agreement of the [ U.S. ] State Department,” said one source.

The etiology of Saudi Arabia ’s antagonist Iran posture is multifactorial. It not only involves the Wahabi establishment’s intolerance of Shia Muslims (the same Wahabis whose religious sanction is required for the al-Sauds to govern at all), but recognition of what Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution led to and may continue to inspire: the overthrow of repressive, corrupt, Western-backed royal dynasties.

The same anxieties are held by other like-minded Persian Gulf monarchies, Egypt and Jordan —all recipients of American military largesse. Indeed, the U.S. and Israel have done their utmost to stoke and capitalize on these fears.

The massive arms deal with Saudi Arabia is just one more step toward war, one more step toward death in the Persian Gulf ."

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