Saudi Arabia is on a crossroad. Major shifts are taking place inside the kingdom nowadays; thanks to the US cover and the expensive cost paid to Washington.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, known in the Gulf Kingdom as MBS, thinks he has a US open green light that extends in time and place. The recent developments in Lebanon and the humiliating treatment by Riyadh to its number one ally in the country, Premier Saad Hariri, is another example about the mentality that reigns in the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia has engulfed itself in a series of wars, starting by Iraq, stretching to Syria, and back to Yemen and Qatar. It has attacked the Bahraini people and occupied the country. Made endless conspiracies against Palestine and rejected the existence of resistance forces there.
Given its huge resources, Riyadh could have done a lot of strategically positive things for its people inside the kingdom and in the neighboring countries. However, it has chosen from the beginning to have an alliance with the enemies of the Arab and Islamic Ummah and to support them.
Riyadh has started these wars without any sober vision about where all this would lead the country and the region. This is because the Saudi strategy, if it ever exists, is amateurish, shortsighted and revolves only over what the king and his royal family want. Moreover, this strategy is highly centered in this narrow circle of inexperienced people.
That is why the kingdom kept waging wars that can never be won. Saudi Arabia has never used the power of diplomacy to achieve its goals. This is because all its history is built upon bloodshed and using solid force, massacres and violence to subjugate rivals and enemies alike.
Now, coming back to the last episode of the Saudi miscalculations in Lebanon, namely with Prime Minister Saad Hariri, forcing him to resign and keeping him under home arrest and declaring a war against Lebanon. This is pretty similar to another strategic miscalculation few months ago against Qatar. The Saudi mistakes have and for the first time revealed the true policy of Riyadh; one of flagrant intervention and meddling in the affairs of neighboring countries to impose its will and dictates orders from above.
Luckily enough, all these policies and plots have backfired against the kingdom and put it in a very tight position. While they have brought favorable and good results to the targeted countries; in both the Qatari and Lebanese cases, Saudi arrogant and foolish attitude has brought the people together and unified them behind their leaderships. It also galvanized the patriotic and national feelings and triggered unprecedented antagonism against Saudi policies.
Inside the kingdom, things are not better, the random and arbitrary arrests of tens of Emirs and ministers have caused a deep sense of insecurity; it prompted chaos and turbulence on all levels. The steps by MBS to consolidate his tight grip and shift Saudi Arabia from the coalition rule of the royal families to the rule of only one man is not likely to succeed, due to many major reasons and factors. But this childish adventure is likely to take its time along with all the negative repercussions it will have upon the region, but more importantly and devastatingly inside the kingdom.
Source: Al-Manar Website
