It never crossed my mind that Saudi Arabia willingly would slip into an abyss internally and externally. The image of Saudi Arabia in the Arab world and the international community before King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman took power was different. Saudi was then a leader capable of resolving any disputes and it was known as the initiator of several initiatives – such as the Arab initiative for peace to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Prince Fahd initiative in 1981 at the Arab Summit in Rabat for resolving the Israel-Palestinian issue, and then the Prince Abdullah initiative on the same issue in 2002 at the Beirut summit.
When Saudi Arabia was in an armed conflict with Egypt in Yemen – from 1962 till 1967 – it was one of the darkest days in Egyptian-Saudi relations. But despite this low in relations and mutual acrimony, Saudi King Faisal received Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser in Jeddah, in 1965. It was a friendly and cordial meeting. The Saudi King’s brothers – Sultan, Abdullah, Naif, Salman, Khalid – and others attended the meeting. The objective of the meeting was to finish the war between Saudi and Egypt in Yemen, and despite the armed confrontation between the two sides, they chose to meet and ended all differences between them.
King Faisal was not happy with Egypt’s policies, but he behaved like a true statesman when Egypt suffered a crisis. After the defeat of Egypt in the 1967 war with Israel, his attitude towards Egypt was positive, as Egypt emerged from the 1967 war a shattered nation – shattered militarily, economically and psychologically. He provided financial help and bore a large part of the costs of the war against Israel. King Faisal’s policy towards national and regional issues must be praised and his actions showed his greatness. It must also be noted that at the height of the differences with Nasser, the Saudi King did not put any obstacles in the way of Egyptians performing Haj or Umrah (in the same way as Saudi is now obstructing Qataris from performing pilgrimage), nor did the king send back Egyptian university professors and others. Despite all the wounds in Yemen, King Faisal visited Cairo. These qualities of the great leaders do not change in adversity, and as the poet says:
Those of high ranks do not carry hatred in their heads
And the short-tempered will not reach high ranks.
In short,Saudi leaders were practising quiet diplomacy on Arab and international issues. Their diplomacy was often successful, unlike the Saudi diplomacy today under King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed.
Many Arabs were appalled by Salman emerging at the top in the hierarchy of power. However, they expected that all Arab differences would be resolved and that conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Libya would be resolved in favour of the Arabs, and that Egypt would not fall prey to an ignorant military and that the GCC would be the true source of the Arab and Islamic unity. They also thought that under the leadership of King Salman, its intervention in Yemen, called the “storm of firmness”, would be a positive intervention and would help restore the rights of Arabs throughout the Arab world, but we were shocked by what happened later.
The Arabs today are in a state of turmoil and disintegration at all levels because of Arab money and its use against the interests of the Arab nation. Look at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it is not where it should be and this is because of wrong use of its money. The result is inflation, unemployment etc. Intellectuals in the country ended up in prison and big businessmen, too. Nobody thought Saudi businessmen would be harmed and sent to prison on false charges, as well as high-ranking princes. Women, who are highly respected, and among them intellectuals and activists, too, ended up in prison. They were subjected to humiliation and shame and immodesty, according to reports published by international organisations. At the same time, life became miserable for ordinary Saudis. The government drastically increased fees of government services, imposed unprecedented taxes on citizens and residents and citizens’ lives deteriorated.
At the same time, the state is spending billions of dollars on the war in Yemen. Military costs in Yemen are estimated at $20 to $25 billion dollars over the past four years, not to mention the costs of the Saudi army on the border and the purchase of arms from abroad.
After imposing the siege on Qatar, Saudi has spent and continues to spend millions of dollars on public relations in Western countries to improve the reputation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and tarnish the image of Qatar. The return on that spending is negative because the reputation of the Kingdom is in tatters, plunging to their lowest levels, as the Western media talks negatively about the Kingdom and most parliaments in the West are critical of Saudi. Its government is being condemned on the issue of human rights or war crimes in Yemen or the killing of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi or the arrest of the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri, or the siege of the State of Qatar. The international media are unanimous in their criticism of Riyadh, be it Washington Post, The New York Times, the Times, the Guardian and the Financial Times, as well as prestigious magazines such as The Economist and German and Canadian newspapers and so on.
Finally, Saudi Arabia has been accused of being the first financier of retired General Khalifa Hafter in Libya. Hafter is waging a war against the internationally recognised, legitimate government in Tripoli with the aim of overthrowing it and taking over the reins of power. By doing this, Saudi Arabia is entering a dark hole, hurling itself into a crisis of catastrophic proportions far away from its borders. Also, Saudi Arabia rejects the pro-democracy protests in Algeria, Tunisia and Sudan. The protesters there are holding signs against Saudi Arabia, and in Sudan, they are rejecting Saudi attempts to get closer to the movement that overthrew Omar Bashir and are opposing Saudi attempts to win over the new military council with offerings of money.
If these huge sums of money were spent on the reconstruction of southern Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the Saudi state would have security, economic stability and military power over the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Horn of Africa. Arab wisdom says that if you stop doing falsehood, that itself is a virtue. Riyadh must understand this.