On the eve of make-or-break Syria peace talks in Geneva, Saudi Arabia insisted that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can’t be part of any negotiation. Heading the Saudi-based High Negotiation Committee, Saudi Arabia pulled the rug out from underneath U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura. Tasked with ending the five-year-old war killing 270,000 and displacing millions more, de Mistura finds Saudi Arabia dictating terms of any peace deal. While a shaky ceasefire went into place Feb. 26, Syria’s Saudi-funded opposition groups led by the HNC only agreed because al-Assad was close to wiping out rebel groups. Syria’s Saudi-funded proxy war started March 11, 2011 at the height of the Arab Spring, a Saudi-backed movement toppling Mideast dictators, starting with Tunisia Jan. 15, 2011, moving next to Egypt Feb. 11, 2011 and then to Libya Aug. 24, 2011.
Saudi’s master plan toppling Mideast dictatorships backfired, unleashing radical Islam into the power vacuums created from longstanding Mideast dictatorships. Saudi Arabia, and its key allies in the U.S. and European Union, camouflages the proxy war, calling local uprisings a civil war. “We are looking forward to the start of negotiations tomorrow to discuss the transitional government body that would carry executive powers, including those of the presidency, which would not have a role, in that phase or any phase for any criminal who has perpetrated crimes against the Syrian people, including Assad,” said HNC spokesman Salim al-Muslat. How Saudi Arabia decides to topple a U.N.-sovereign government is anyone’s guess. Starting peace talks in Geneva on exactly the wrong foot, Saudi Arabia exposed who’s really responsible for Syria’s five-year death-and-destruction.
President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerryi rubber-stamped Saudi propaganda that the Syrian conflict was a civil war. From day-one, it was a Saudi- funded proxy war designed to topple al-Assad’s Shiite government, replacing it with a radical Sunni-Wahhabi regime in Damascus. Aligned closely with Turkey, Saudi Arabia’s mission expands Wahhabi Islam, especially in Shiite countries. While Obama backed the Saudi proxy war against al-Assad for the past five years, Russian and Iran went to al-Assad’s defense: Iran because they were defending another Shiite regime from a Wahhabi takeover, while Russia sought to protect longstanding interests in the Mediterranean. Showing that de Mistura has an impossible mission in Geneva, he’s dealing with Saudi and Turkish pressure to evict al-Assad and simultaneously continue battling the Kurds.
Considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the Kurds are the only reliable fighting force against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey have any interest in battling ISIS. Both see ISIS as a buffer against Shiite governments in Damascus and Tehran. Russian reports of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan benefiting directly from illicit ISIS oil sales tell a very different story than Washington. With the U.S. on Saudi Arabia’s side, Obama essentially backs the same foreign policy as ISIS and al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra Front, both seeking Damascus regime change. Obama finds his foreign policy aligned with ISIS and al-Qaeda, backing Saudi Arabia and Turkey regardless of how it harms U.S. national security. Instead of building alliances with Russia and Iran, Obama continues the same Cold War policy that almost drove superpowers to nuclear war.
Watching Turkey shell Kurdish positions near the Syrian border, Turkey wants no part of defeating ISIS, as long as Erdogan’s family gets cheap ISIS oil. Turning heavy guns on the Kurds proves the Turks want no part of weakening ISIS. Obama can’tg have it both ways, backing Saudi Arabia and Turkey while, at the same time, using the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] and YPG [Kurdish Protection Units] to battle ISIS. Obama’s foreign policy plays all sides against the middle, weakening U.S. national security by accepting the Turkey and Saudi insanity to topple al-Assad. “We hope to reach a solution very soon. We want to see an end to the bloodshed,” said HNC spokesman al-Muslat. Before the latest round of Geneva peace talks blow up, Obama needs to tell Turkey and Saudi Arabia to stop waging war. Insisting on al-Assad’s ouster, Saudi Arabia’s kills the Geneva peace talks.
Time has run out on Obama to rubber-stamp the Saudi proxy war against al-Assad. Pretending that the five-year-old long was a homegrown insurgency completely ignores Saudi Arabia’s proxy war. Instead of siding with the Turks and Saudis, the U.S. would be far better off collaborating with Russia and Iran to stop Saudi’s determined effort to topple al-Assad. Letting Saudi Arabia run U.S. foreign policy harms U.S. national security. If there’s any path forward to defeat ISIS, it lies with the Kurd’s Peshmerga fighters. Turkey’s renewed effort to liquidate the Kurds show they have no interest in battling ISIS. Part of the same Wahhabi tribes, ISIS and al-Qaeda have no intent to surrender the battlefield to the U.S. Time has run out on Obama to once-and-for-all stand up to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, back the Kurds and strengthen U.S. relations with Russia and Iran.
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