Saudi crimes aimed at protecting US interests in Mideast: Expert

Press TV has conducted an interview with Omar Nashabi, a Middle East expert, about a senior Iranian official saying that Saudi Arabia is playing a “blame game” to justify its failures in the Middle East.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: Walk us through the recent comments made by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman for Iran. He says that Saudi Arabia is playing a blame game and is also seeking to dodge a responsibility for its wrong doings and failures in the region?

Nashabi: Well this is turning out to be a pattern because the Saudi government or the Saudi monarchy has been playing this blame game not only in Yemen but also in Bahrain, also in Iraq. It has been blaming the Iranians for “interfering in internal Arab affairs”.

Well it is ironic because first of all this is not based on actual facts and actual evidence and the second point that is very important is that it is doing that and at the same time it is naturalizing or it is opening relationships with Israel. That is the main enemy for Muslims and Arabs all around the world. So that is not very consistent.

And on the third level, what adds to the inconsistency of the Saudi behavior is the fact that Saudi Arabia has been supporting these terrorist groups since the 80s, since the 70s, since Afghanistan and it has been supporting al-Qaeda, it has been supporting these terrorists, most of the terrorists in 9/11 were Saudis, the Saudi relationship to terrorist Takfiri groups has been a long-standing relationship. So this is a major contradiction.

Now the failures, it is more than just failures. I would like to add, yes, the Foreign Minister for Iran maybe has to use some diplomatic language but it is more than just a failure. It is a crime against humanity and crimes that have been going on and on in Yemen.

Yesterday or in the last week we had some doctors withdraw from hospitals because the Saudis have been bombing indiscriminately civilian targets, civilian infrastructure, hospitals, and protected spaces in violation of Geneva Conventions, in violation of international law. These crimes that the Saudi monarchy has been conducting is ongoing and the series of crimes are ongoing and well, the Saudis as the Iranian Foreign Minister just said have nothing else but to play the blame game again but unfortunately for the Saudis the blame game has expired and it no longer holds not even for any public, not even for the Saudi public or for the [Persian] Gulf public who support this attack on Yemen and this invasion of Bahrain and the continuous terrorist activities in Iraq and in other parts of the region.

Press TV: Can you further elaborate for us and our viewers about what it is that the Saudis are trying to gain with following these policies, as you mentioned supporting a long time support for these terrorist groups and trying to normalize ties with the occupying Israeli regime?

Nashabi: Well the Saudis are doing two things. First of all they are trying to play on this tension between Arabs and Persians or Arabs and Iranians. They are trying to actually say that they represent the Arabs and the Arab majority and they want to actually defend the Arab land or this false legacy that the Saudis are protecting Arabism against the so-called alleged Persian invasion or these kinds of fantasies that the Saudi media comes up with. That is on one level.

On another level and that is even more dangerous, they are trying to fuel a kind of sectarian tension between Sunnis and Shias to say that the Arabs are Sunnis and the Iranians are Shias and therefore the Arabs must stand in solidarity in a kind of sectarian confessional way against the Shias in Iran and that is a very dangerous incitement of violence and incitement of civil wars and destruction in the Arab world, first.

I mean they are trying to create civil wars in every Arab country because they are trying to incite Sunnis against Shias and that is a very, very dangerous plan that the Saudis are doing and I think their ongoing incitement of violence is a destruction for civilization in general and the Saudi regime is first of all, let’s remind the viewers that this is not a democracy, there are no elections in Saudi Arabia, this is an absolute monarchy, a tribal monarchy, this is not even a nation state.

We are talking about a group of people who have a lot of money because they gained the money from the oil and they are ruling the country without any democratic principle or any modern way of dealing with a nation state and they are launching this campaign of violence and hatred and destruction in the whole region and at the same time normalizing their relationship with Israel and well, that goes in line, all these things come together, it is a packaged deal. They incite violence to create destruction in every Arab country, in Yemen, in Bahrain, in Iraq, in Syria and they get closer and closer to Israel because it is for the interest of Israel to weaken the nations that are in the whole region so that Israel remains a safe haven and to protect American interests in the region.

So therefore the Saudi behavior, this aggression and the crimes are in the aim to protect American interests in the region and I think it is by using terror means and means that actually create a threat to international peace and security.    

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