News / Saudi Arabia / Foreign Policy

Saudi ex-spy chief warns allies' trust in US waning after failure in Afghanistan

Thursday, 04 November 2021 7:53 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 04 November 2021 7:53 AM ]

US ambassador Christopher Henzel, Air Force Brig. Gen. Evan Pettus, commander, 378th Air Expeditionary Wing, and his command team greet US Marine Corps Gen Frank McKenzie, CDR, US Central Command, during a visit to Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, July 9, 2020. (US Air Force Photo)

A Saudi former spy chief has warned US President Joe Biden that the Kingdom’s trust in Washington was waning as two decades of military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan resulted in failure.

Prince Turki bin Faisal — also a former ambassador to the United States — said on Tuesday that Washington’s “failed experience in Afghanistan, and I would say semi-failed experience in Iraq, are responsible for the perceived failure or defeat, if you like, of a great power, the United States.”

As a result, he said, “doubts” about the US were “accumulating” and causing “strategic regional confusion.”

He also warned that this strategic confusion in Washington’s reliability, risks “more conflicts and crises” in the Middle East.

“No region in the world fears the danger of this strategic confusion more than the Middle East region," he added.

Al-Faisal also warned US President Joe Biden to “weigh [the issues] carefully” before taking “any steps ... that impact this historical bond” between Washington and its allies in the Middle East.

He had previously described US chaotic pullout from Afghanistan as a combination of “incompetence, carelessness, [and] bad management.”

US spy agencies failed to predict Kabul’s rapid collapse: WSJ

Leading US spy agencies failed to forecast the rapid collapse of Kabul and the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban prior to the final withdrawal of American forces, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The US completed the chaotic withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan by the end of August, in what observers saw as a botched exit after a futile military adventure lasting 20 years.

The US-led NATO alliance invaded the South Asian country in 2001 under the pretext of ‘war on terror’, to decimate the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. None of the goals were achieved despite massive investment.

Al-Faisal also raised concern that the stockpile of weapons and military tech that had been left behind could end up being used against Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh asks for US weapons to bolster missile systems against Yemeni army attacks: Sources

A report reveals that Saudi Arabia has turned to the United States to seek help in strengthening its missile interception systems, as the kingdom remains unable to protect its soil against its southern neighbor’s retaliatory missile and drone attacks.

In separate remarks, al-Faisal had even said, in addition to US assistance, the kingdom would seek “other support” to bolster its defenses against alleged missile and drone attacks.

The US deployed two Patriot missile artillery batteries in the kingdom, following attacks on Saudi oil facilities, in 2019.

Riyadh enjoyed cordial relations with the US under former president Donald Trump, who inked hefty arms deals with the kingdom despite worldwide outcry over Riyadh’s war on Yemen and its human rights violations, including the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

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