Saudi Arabia using counter-terrorism for own agenda: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Eric Draitser, the founder of stopimperialism.com, to discuss the formation of an “anti-terror” military coalition by Saudi Arabia and compromised of 34 nations.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Well what do you think Eric? What do you make of this new coalition that is being founded by Saudi Arabia to stop basically terrorism or to fight terrorism?

Draitser: Well on its surface I think we have to applaud the measure. It is obviously a good initiative but I think that anybody who understands the political calculus of the conflict in Syria in the world that Saudi Arabia along with other countries involving this coalition have played in fomenting terrorism. I think we should be obviously quite skeptical of Saudi Arabia’s genuine concern as it relates to terrorism.

Of course we know that a lot of the Wahhabi extremists, a lot of the terror groups get their money funneled to them through Saudi-controlled channels and networks, through a variety of front organizations. We know that Turkey has been intimately involved in funneling weapons and fighters into the country in Syria. So I think the obvious question has to be should we really expect those countries principally responsible for bringing terrorism into the region for fomenting terrorism? Should we really trust them to be genuinely concerned with counter-terrorism? I think that we should obviously remain skeptical and obviously there are voices around the world in Russia and in the US who have voiced precisely that kind of skepticism.

Press TV: Why do you think that we are seeing this move actually being made at this time by Saudi Arabia? As you pointed out of course Saudi Arabia along with Turkey, along with Qatar and others in the region, there is lots of proof to say that they have been some of the main sponsors of terrorism and terrorist groups that allegedly now that they want to fight, so why the façade? Why do you think at this point in time then Saudi Arabia is saying that it is forming this coalition to fight terrorism?

Draitser: I think that there are a number of reasons. I think first and foremost the Russian military involvement in Syria has really exposed the nakedly imperialist agenda of the United States, of its NATO allies and its [P]GCC partners. It has exposed the fact that what they are really interested in is regime change and in pursuing their own geopolitical objectives rather than in conflict resolution or counter-terrorism.

So I think that because they have been exposed by the Russian initiative, they now have to backtrack, they have to back away from that pro-terrorist position, pro-regime change position and try to present themselves as being interested in counter-terrorism, precisely an inversion of the reality.

And I think also from the perspective of Saudi Arabia we hear very serious rumblings from Saudi Arabia and the region that there is instability within the House of Saud itself, that there are factions that are splitting away from each other within the ruling establishment of Saudi Arabia and in many ways I think that there is a particular faction in that country which fears that the possibility that the terrorism that it has financed, that it has fomented and that it has propagated around the world could be used as a weapon against it.

There is very real instability in Saudi Arabia and I think that the ruling establishment wants to use this issue of counter-terrorism as a means of not only clamping down on their own opposition but as a means of reasserting their control inside the country and in the region. Obviously the war against Yemen has not only proven to be a horrific war crime but an abject failure. It has shown and exposed Saudi Arabia as the paper tiger and the US puppet that it is and I think that in many ways Saudi Arabia’s initiative here with regards to Syria is an attempt to reassert their own control and re-establish a sense of stability.

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