Support Syria militants shows Saudi desparation: Commentator

Press TV has conducted an interview with Steven Kelley, a political commentator from Los Angeles, to ask for his insight on Saudi Arabia’s resolve to continue supporting the Takfiri militants in Syria.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How can Saudi Arabia openly admit to be a state sponsor of terrorism in Syria by supporting these terrorists in Syria and no one is saying anything about it?

Kelley: They’ve been able to get away with all sorts of atrocities, and they seem to think that they’re untouchable and I don’t see how that would change at this time. Clearly, they’re thumbing their nose at world opinion.

And the very fact that they will continue, the statement by the ministry says, they will continue to fund them in Syria. I guess that means that he [Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir] doesn’t fund the ones that are working outside of Syria. But either way, Saudi Arabia seems to have a lot of problems and this shortly shows a great deal of desperation on their part, and I can only think of a census added to that from a position of weakness, fake strength.  

Press TV: Saudi Arabia is also increasingly getting more involved in the internal affairs of Middle East countries. They want to decide who runs Syria, who runs Yemen. What are some of the dangers of this kind of policy of theirs and are they in a position to dictate democracy or human rights to anyone?

Kelly: Certainly they’re not and of course they feel that they’ve got the United States and Israel backing up anything they do, it would appear. But I would expect that there is a possibility this has something to do with them wanting to see a pipeline built right through the center of Syria.

So, again this would appear to be some sort of desperation involved in this pipeline. Otherwise, they use this excuse to suggest that this has something to do with the grudge they have against Iran. But otherwise, there’s really no logic to their desperate hatred of Bashar al-Assad other than perhaps they can’t stand Alawites and they need to build a pipeline.

Press TV: The Saudis have been under a lot of criticism for the spread and support of Wahhabism throughout the Middle East which has led to most of the instability that we see today. Why is this issue not giving more closer scrutiny by the West?

Kelly: That just shows a high level of ignorance. People have been trained not to understand these things. Of course, in the West we’ve got so many people brainwashed to think that this is a Muslim issue.

They know very very little about Wahhabism and the risk of Wahhabism and they almost know less about the Zionism and its relationship to Wahhabism. So, certainly as long as these large portions of population remain ignorant, they are able to carry out these acts and get away with it.  

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