Saudis seek to pit Muslims against each other: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Raza Kazim, a member of the Islamic Human Rights Commission in London, about Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari lashing out at some Arab states for branding as “terrorists” volunteer and resistance forces fighting against terror in the Middle East.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you feel about the Iraqi foreign minister going all out essentially at a session which is chaired or at least headed by the Saudis?

Kazim: I think what we are seeing is the recognition by the Iraqis that in terms of the ground realities that the difference that is being made to Iraqi society to stop Daesh going about the way that they were it is not going to come from the British government, it is not going to come from the American government. The ground realities are the people who are giving their lives and putting their necks on the line literally are the people from Hezbollah to stop these kinds of things actually happening, to stop Daesh in their tracks, to stop all the different terrorist groups that are there.

So the fact that the Iraqi foreign minister has actually done this is finally a recognition from the Iraqis in its fullest form that without Hezbollah the tide against Daesh could not possibly have been turned and one of the things that Hezbollah, not just Hezbollah but Iran for example is also doing is empowering the local communities, the people in the local situation to actually say right, this is something that the locals actually need to take up to, empower them to be able to continue that fight and make sure that this happens.

We have seen that America and Britain with all the training that they have given have been able to do very little in fact to try and get anything done.

Press TV: Why is it that the Popular Mobilization Units or even Hezbollah angered the Saudis so much because the first thing the Saudi ambassador to Iraq did when he came into that country after years of not even having an embassy was to criticize the Popular Mobilization Units?

Kazim: I think it is clear that one of the things that has been trying to be done by Saudi Arabia in Iraq and right around the world in fact is to create the sectarian narrative, the sectarian narrative in order to pit one Muslim against the other and the Saudis do not care who they are. What they want is Islam to be the thing that is challenged.

So they are happy at one level when Hezbollah was fighting Israel in 2006 but they want the people to pray for the success of Israel or to make sure that Hezbollah won’t be successful. Now we have also seen Saudi Arabia declared Iran as terrorist in terms of what’s been going on in Egypt. What we are now seeing is that Saudi Arabia has very openly adopted the policies that Israel has.

So the fact that these things are coming out into the open are very much an indication that if you really want to see where Saudi policy is going to go, then you only need to look at what Israeli policy is and within that context we need to understand that Saudi Arabia is in a unique position where it wears that title of Khadem al-Haramain that they will actually be because of the Mecca and the Ka’aba and so on and so forth, those religious sites of significance that are there, that they will be able to implement the sectarian agenda in a way that Israel is not able to implement it. And we need to however see that the policies of both countries are, as they come out into the public domain, are very much the same and we have seen the people from those respective governments meeting up and so on and so forth.

Press TV: A lot of people say that a lot of these are signs that the Saudi royal family is coming towards its end because this news coupled with the news that the Saudi interior minister had to beg essentially for that honor to be bestowed upon him by France, certainly all of this just means that the Saudis are losing a lot of respect, aren’t they?

Kazim: I think in terms of having respect or whatever, I mean that is not something that can be judged in terms of money or wealth or whatever but I understand the nature of the question that you are actually asking.

Now the point that we need to understand that there is an expression in English, they are cutting off their nose to spite their face and I think the Saudis are so kind of driven by the agenda that the West wants them to do, by the agenda that the Israelis want to carry out that in terms of what they are doing and how they are carrying about themselves, they do not seem to even be caring about their own survival in that respect and we see that in terms of the oil prices, in terms of a number of areas within Saudi life and I think we need to understand that whether the Saudi family comes to an end or not, we need to look at what the structures are that are going to be put in its place.

We have seen that for example in Egypt we had a military dictatorship with Mubarak and then we had a transition period and then we have now got the military dictatorship back in place with the Americans and the Israelis calling the shots as to what it is that needs to be done and we need to understand that whether it is the Saudi royal family or whatever it is that is going to be there, what is the structure that is going to be implemented by the West in order to make sure that their interests are continued to be met?

So when I talk about interest I am again talking about in terms of the white establishment governments they want regardless of what the people of those countries might think as being in their interest.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk