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[Valhelm]

Pivot to allying with Iran over a span of time.

This is the best course of action, yeah. It's maddening how Americans have been brainwashed to see Saudi Arabia as more benevolent than Iran.

 

[captainnapalm]

Nothing will be done. It's extremely unlikely that Saudi Arabia is not acting with the blessing of their allies in the West when it comes to their activities in the Middle East. Those motherfuckers walk hand in hand with American presidents. It's an unholy alliance that needs to be fully exposed, but this would have far-reaching implications, because it would expose what countries like the US, the UK and France are really up to in the Middle East, and what they really support.

 

[shintoki]

Pivot to allying with Iran over a span of time.

Support the other countries around them would be the best idea.

 

[KooopaKid]

Bomb them like we did in Libya?

 

[AdaWong]

I like how everyone is taking everything in the article in the OP as facts.

 

[LordDash]

I like how everyone is taking everything in the article in the OP as facts.

People will eat anything up about things they have no idea about.

The Wahhabi part is especially over exaggerated, "Wahhabism" is pretty much concentrated only around the Najd area, and they're a minority. Although a powerful one.

 

[Lubricus]

I like how everyone is taking everything in the article in the OP as facts.

What is not true?

 

[HerbertBirdsfoot]

I heard a commentator on NPR arguing that the Saudis spend some effort/money to fight internal extremism, and that they have slashed budgets for that due to the current low price of oil!

This was after Paris, basically an argument that falling oil prices have led to decreased anti-terror efforts in the Arab world, so we're going to see more terrorism as a result. What in the hell?

So many damned if you do, damned if you don't types of situations when dealing with the Middle East it's hard to deal with.

 

[AdaWong]

What is not true?

SaUdi Ar@ab!a t0tally gav3 ris3 to ISIS :O ;P #real #lolz

The whole article is so biased, and if you can't see at least a glimpse of that bias then... Well.

 

[PhoenixDark]

Nothing overt. But moving towards energy independence and unshackling Iran has done more to challenge SA than anything else in decades.

 

[Flying Toaster]

1. Stop making Iran the boogie man.
2. Work on energy changes.
3. Focus on pushing a clean energy agenda that aids new industrialized countries in going clean energy instead of oil.
4. Be patient for changes to take effect.

 

[Shake Appeal]

1. Stop making Iran the boogie man.
2. Work on energy changes.
3. Focus on pushing a clean energy agenda that aids new industrialized countries in going clean energy instead of oil.
4. Be patient for changes to take effect.

This is pretty much it.

Here's a fun (if reductive) take on things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS1vlTGHhco

 

[Visceir]

Just saw this news:
Germany scolds BND spy agency over Saudi criticism

The German government has publicly rebuked its own foreign intelligence agency after the BND suggested that Saudi Arabia's foreign policy was becoming more "impulsive".

Saudi Arabia was an important partner "in a crisis-ridden world" and had great significance "especially on the way to peace in Syria", the spokesman insisted.

Don't expect anything to change.

 

[Nikodemos]

Just saw this news:
Germany scolds BND spy agency over Saudi criticism



Don't expect anything to change.

Gotta safeguard them sweet-ass arms deals, what with the auto industry in the shitter due to dieselgate.

 

[Suen]

Ammunition, IS propaganda found after France mosque closure

Paris (AFP) - Kalashnikov ammunition and Islamic State propaganda videos were seized in raids following the closure of a mosque in the Paris suburbs, French authorities said Sunday.

The prayer hall in Lagny-sur-Marne, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) east of the capital, was shut down last Wednesday following a large-scale police operation.

Associated with the traditionalist Salafist branch of Islam, it is the third mosque in France to be closed after the coordinated jihadist attacks on Paris on November 13.

The prefect -- the highest representative of the state -- in the Seine-and-Marne department said Sunday "7.62mm ammunition for a Kalashnikov rifle and propaganda videos" for the Islamic State group had been found in raids linked to the closure of the prayer hall.

The locations of the raids were not given.

A revolver and jihadist documents were also found during searches at the homes of the mosque leaders, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said previously.

A total of 22 travel bans and nine house arrests for "radicalised individuals" have been issued as a result of the operation.

Police also found recordings of religious chants "glorifying the martyrs of jihad linked to the terrorist organisation Jabhat al-Nusra", the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, the prefecture added.

The recordings were found among a wealth of teaching material for youngsters in an undeclared madrassa, or religious school.

"No request was made to open a private school," the prefecture said in its statement.

Mohammed Ramdane, president of the local Muslim association in Lagny, had criticised the closure of the prayer hall on Wednesday, saying: "Nothing has been found. Nothing is hidden, we don't hide anything."

It's commonly known that mosques preaching the Wahhabi/Salafist branch of Islam has and are mainly funded mainly by KSA around the world (although other gulf states are probably involved too, in a much lesser extent probably)

Note also that Turkey and Saudi Arabia have both been accused of backing and supporting Al-Nusrah, and regardless of what you believe or not to be true in that conflict they have, at the very least, supported coalitions that INCLUDES Jabhat al-Nusra.

 

[Gallbaro]

People forget that the petro dollar is one of the primary diplomatic achievements of Nixon and the actual beginning of the current deal with the devil the west has.

Keeping the demand for US dollars, and those dollars offshore has been hugely beneficial to the United States economy.

Their oil exports do not matter so much as their dollar intake.

 

[hiptanaka]

Sanctions.

 

[Suen]

Just saw this news:
Germany scolds BND spy agency over Saudi criticism



Don't expect anything to change.

Yeah and to follow up on that:

German vice-chancellor accuses Saudi Arabia of funding Islamic extremism in the West

The German vice-chancellor has publicly accused Saudi Arabia of financing Islamic extremism in the West and warned that it must stop.

Sigmar Gabriel said that the Saudi regime is funding extremist mosques and communities that pose a danger to public security. “We have to make clear to the Saudis that the time of looking away is over,” Mr Gabriel told Bild am Sonntag newspaper in an interview.

“Wahhabi mosques all over the world are financed by Saudi Arabia. Many Islamists who are a threat to public safety come from these communities in Germany.”

The allegation that Saudi Arabia has funded mosques with links to Islamist terrorism in the West is not new. But it is highly unusual for a Western leader to speak out so directly against the West’s key Arab ally.

Mr Gabriel is Angela Merkel’s deputy and the leader of the German chancellor's main coalition partner. His intervention comes just days after German intelligence issued a rare public warning that Saudi Arabia is at risk of becoming a major destabilising force in the Arab world. Mrs Merkel’s government quickly distanced itself from the BND intelligence service’s assessment, saying it did not reflect official policy.

But Mr Gabriel’s remarks make it clear there are serious misgivings about the Saudi regime within the government.

Wahhabism, a fundamentalist sect of Sunni Islam that inspired both Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and al-Qaeda is also the official form of the religion in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis have long funded the building of Wahhabi mosques around the world to spread the sect. King Salman has already been widely criticised in the German media for offering to build 200 mosques for Syrian refugees arriving in Germany, even as Saudi Arabia refuses to take in any refugees itself.

Mr Gabriel’s linking of Saudi-funded mosques to Islamic extremism will heighten concerns over the offer. It is not the first time he has clashed with the Saudi royal family. On a trip to Riyadh earlier this year he spoke out in support of Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam. He also intervened to block a deal to build a German arms factory in Saudi Arabia which had been approved by a previous German government.

“Of course we need Saudi Arabia to solve the conflicts in the region,” Mr Gabriel told Bild am Sonntag. “We cannot and must not ignore the country. “And it does not help to put it in the pillory every day, because that won’t increase its readiness for serious negotiations over Syria.”

The German parliament on Friday voted to deploy up to 1,200 military personnel to support international air strikes against Isil. German forces will not directly take part in combat missions, but will provide reconnaissance flights and force protection.

Saudi Arabia is to host a conference of Syrian rebel factions opposed to both Isil and the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, next week. Isil has claimed responsibility for a number of terror attacks in Saudi Arabia.

But there have also been persistent allegations the Saudis supplied arms and funding to Isil and other jihadist groups in the Syrian civil war.

Also note that while the western media often mention that Saudi Arabia has been hit by a number of terror attacks by ISIS (which is true) they (prob. deliberately) ignore to mention that the targets have most of the time been on their Shia minroity.

Also this is not the first time Germany accuses GCC for all the nasty shit they do, this is from last year:

German minister accuses Qatar of funding Islamic State fighters

German Development Minister Gerd Mueller accused Qatar on Wednesday of financing Islamic State militants who have seized wide areas of northern Iraq and have posted a video of a captive American journalist being beheaded.

"This kind of conflict, this kind of a crisis always has a history ... The ISIS troops, the weapons - these are lost sons, with some of them from Iraq," Mueller told German public broadcaster ZDF.

"You have to ask who is arming, who is financing ISIS troops. The keyword there is Qatar - and how do we deal with these people and states politically?" said Mueller, a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the center-right Bavarian sister party of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.

Mueller did not elaborate and presented no evidence of a Qatari link to Islamic State. A German government spokesman said he was checking whether Mueller's remarks reflected the official view of Berlin.

Officials at the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, a wealthy Gulf Arab state, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on his accusation.

Qatar has denied that it supports Islamist insurgents in Syria and Iraq. Diplomats and opposition sources say that while Qatar supports relatively moderate rebels also backed by Saudi Arabia and the West, it also has backed more hardline factions seeking to set up a strict Islamic state.

In March, David Cohen, the U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, cited reports of Qatari backing for Islamist fighters in Syria and described this as a “permissive jurisdiction” for donors funding militants.

Qatar has also strongly backed Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, outlawed since the Egyptian military overthrew an elected Islamist president in 2013, and has given refuge to many foreign Islamists including from Hamas and the Taliban.

Proclaiming a "caliphate" straddling parts of Iraq and Syria, Islamic State has overrun broad swathes of Sunni Muslim-populated northern and western Iraq with little resistance. They have pushed back Kurdish regional forces allied with the Baghdad central government and driven tens of thousands of minority communities including Christians and Yazidis from their homes.

Islamic State circulated a video on Tuesday that purported to show the beheading of American journalist James Foley in revenge for U.S. air strikes against the insurgents in Iraq.

Germany's foreign and defense ministers said on Wednesday that Germany was prepared to send arms to Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq fighting Islamic State and would immediately deliver military equipment such as helmets and security vests.

No clear evidence nor was it elaborated on as I highlighted, but multiple actors have accused Qatar and KSA of this, including some from the White House who are their closest allies.

The fact that Merkel & Co. criticize and tell their own foreign intelligence to shut up should give a pretty clear picture with who the West are mainly allied with and how much the oil and arm deals mean to them, so yeah I'd say the "war on terrorism" and "war on ISIS" by the West is more or less a big joke.

 

[Celestial Mortal]

I'm an expat living in Saudi Arabia and although I was born here, I'm not a national.

The current situation of Saudi Arabia has degraded a lot. Only a handful of true Muslims are left here now, with many more now opting for the Western Culture.

I don't agree with OP and many other posts, still.

If we're talking about oil reserves, UAE is already suffering from their oil as locally the oil prices are on the up. Many think that this will be the same case for Saudi Arabia but most of the Internal Advisors say that there's no use of increasing oil prices locally.

I don't like politics or like to get involved, but the inhumane way of treating expats in the country is nothing less than a dictatorship.

If what would be the downfall of the country, it won't be for anything else but the poor treatment of the people living in the country.

 

[ZiZ]

people like to pin Islamic terrorism on Saudi Arabia, as if Saudi Arabia is sending missionaries all over the world to teach people to kill infidels. It's an easy scapegoat, something that most people understand very little about, but are willing to believe because they disagree with them on other aspects.

Saudi Arabia has a lot of issues, like free speech and gender discrimination, but the government has cracked down on terrorists and people who sympathize with them.

Saudi Arabia is changing and changing fast. mentalities are different now than they were a few years ago, and keep in mind less than a century ago a big portion of the country were living in tents. a few decades ago people there weren't nearly as religious as they are now, but then the religious Sahwah happened, and now people are cooling down again.

Islamic terrorism feeds off western interference, AlQaeda were a result of the war between Afghanistan and Russia, they were supported by the US. After the US's war with Afghanistan their activity increased.

ISIS appeared as a direct result of America's War in Iraq.

I'd like to read more from Saudi Arabian users regarding this situation.

they risk persecution.

no they don't.

 

[Chinner]

Possible nuke area?

 

[L0st Id3ntity]

people like to pin Islamic terrorism on Saudi Arabia, as if Saudi Arabia is sending missionaries all over the world to teach people to kill infidels. It's an easy scapegoat, something that most people understand very little about, but are willing to believe because they disagree with them on other aspects.

Saudi Arabia has a lot of issues, like free speech and gender discrimination, but the government has cracked down on terrorists and people who sympathize with them.

Saudi Arabia is changing and changing fast. mentalities are different now than they were a few years ago, and keep in mind less than a century ago a big portion of the country were living in tents. a few decades ago people there weren't nearly as religious as they are now, but then the religious Sahwah happened, and now people are cooling down again.

Islamic terrorism feeds off western interference, AlQaeda were a result of the war between Afghanistan and Russia, they were supported by the US. After the US's war with Afghanistan their activity increased.

ISIS appeared as a direct result of America's War in Iraq.

I agree. As someone who lives in the region this thread makes no sense to me.

 

[Chittagong]

Buy a Tesla

 

[Stinkles]

All goes back to the seizing of the Mosque and the royal family making two deals with the devil - sponsor Wahhabism and simultaneously appease the west. Trifecta of incompatible politics.

 

[Messofanego]

I'm an expat living in Saudi Arabia and although I was born here, I'm not a national.

The current situation of Saudi Arabia has degraded a lot. Only a handful of true Muslims are left here now, with many more now opting for the Western Culture.

I don't agree with OP and many other posts, still.

If we're talking about oil reserves, UAE is already suffering from their oil as locally the oil prices are on the up. Many think that this will be the same case for Saudi Arabia but most of the Internal Advisors say that there's no use of increasing oil prices locally.

I don't like politics or like to get involved, but the inhumane way of treating expats in the country is nothing less than a dictatorship.

If what would be the downfall of the country, it won't be for anything else but the poor treatment of the people living in the country.

Living as an expat in UAE would be even worse, if you ever get into debt and your passport is taken away.

 

[jimbobsmells]

Don't believe anything you read on the internet.

There's no smoke without fire.
See, I can do drive by shit posting too.

 

[justjohn]

Leave them the fuck alone. However bad they're things will be a thousand times worse with them being removed. We've seen it with with Sadam, Libya and now Syria. It's a despicable regime but the alternative will be far worse.

 

[SilentxS3ud]

I like how Americans always feel the need to save the world from all its evils. Focus on your country, fix the issues here then we can see. I'd absolutely love for people to be educated about this whole topic. Don't just read one article and say what can we do about this terrorist country. Nothing good happened from Afghanstan and Iraq wars so why do you want to even cause more problems in the region?

And lol at the post suggesting to bomb Saudi Arabia. Inhumane.

 

[ebullientprism]

Wait for the oil economy to run it's course. Until then, just don't let them construct Mosques or Madrassas in your country.
Their diplomatic spat with Sweden last year shows the futility of trying to pressure them into changing their ways.

This is pretty much it. It's a disease without a cure. Let it run its course and minimize spread to other areas while it does.

They are fucked once oil becomes less important and/or runs out. Till then not much you can do.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Invent a source of energy that unshackles us from oil? I think that would be pretty bad for Saudi Arabia.

 

[Celestial Mortal]

Leave them the fuck alone. However bad they're things will be a thousand times worse with them being removed. We've seen it with with Sadam, Libya and now Syria. It's a despicable regime but the alternative will be far worse.

Kudos to your post. Let the countries worried about Saudi Arabia first fiz their issues instead of just thinking about what next country should they bomb the hell out of.

 

[Beer Monkey]

Build dozens of nuke plants a year and electrical cars.

 

[ShutEye]

You need to simultaneously shut down state sponsored hate speech and build a counter narrative that pluralism is the only solution that doesn't involve mountains of death.

That's only going to happen through strategic state to state engagement and will involve restrictions on places like Saudi Arabia funding activities overseas.

 

[googleplex]

It would actually be in America's long term best interest to trade in Saudi Arabia for Iran as a middle east ally.

Build dozens of nuke plants a year and electrical cars.

You'd only need about 30 or 40 nuclear power plants to fully supply all of the US's power needs.