US-engineered Persian Gulf security system crumbling | ||
US-engineered Persian Gulf security system crumbling By M. Mirzai While the biggest threat to the US-engineered Middle East security system is the possibility that the population of Saudi Arabia may try to imitate what has been happening in the area, thereby putting an end to the established regional geopolitical and more importantly, energy, structure, the first protests in the Saudi Arabia city of Jeddah are already in the books. Peaceful demonstrations have already began in front of the Jedda Municipality in protest of the severe lack of infrastructure, and corruption, that led the city to be inundated in January last week causing billions of dollars of damages for the second time in two years. That this is even occurring in a state where the average wealth is orders of magnitude greater than in Egypt is remarkable. On the other hand, it is reported that Kuwait is paying its citizens $3,500 plus free food for a year to keep calm. Four men were killed in protests by the Shia minority in eastern Saudi Arabia in the most serious outbreak of violence in the Kingdom since the start of the Islamic awakeing. The protests by members of the two-million-strong Shia community, mostly concentrated in the oil-rich Eastern Province, are escalating. Hamza al-Hassan, an opposition activist, said that the latest violence started in the first week of February when Nasser al-Mheishi, 19, was killed at a checkpoint near Qatif, an oasis which is a Shia centre. Mr Hassan says that "he was killed and left for three or four hours on the ground because the government refused to let his family collect the body". This led to mass protests in and around the city of Qatif in which a second man, Ali al-Feifel, 24, was shot dead by police, doctors were quoted as saying by news agencies. The Saudi Interior Ministry could not be reached for comment on the allegations. The Shias in Saudi Arabia have long complained of political, social and economic discrimination against them by the state. Demonstrators earlier this year demanded the release of nine Shia activists held without trial since 1996. During protests around a police station in nearby Awamiya town in October, the ministry claimed that police used only rubber bullets. Mr Hassan said that local Shia leaders had been to see the governor of the province, Prince Mohammed bin Fahd, in the provincial capital, Dammam. Another Shia leader, Hussain al-Biat, reportedly said to Prince Mohammed: "Don't shed more blood or you will lose control." Mr Hassan says that a further problem is that "nobody can control the youth. It is the same phenomenon as we witnessed in Libya and Egypt." Meanwhile, armored anti-riot vehicles cluster outside the police station in Awwamiya in Saudi Arabia’s oil- producing eastern region, where protest is turning violent. In nearby al-Qatif, graffiti scrawled on a cemetery wall criticizes the Al Saud family, founders of the kingdom eight decades ago, and calls for the removal of their fellow monarchs in Bahrain. Black Shiite flags adorn religious centers in the back-alleys. Clashes between police and protesters in the two towns have intensified since October and since then seven Shiites have been killed by security forces, according to figures provided by Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights First Society. Bigger storm coming The West is very well aware of the power of Islamic awakening. Some of the Western analysts call it a fire. “This is another one of those possible flashpoints in the region that could become a much bigger fire if it is not contained early on,” Paul Sullivan, a political scientist specializing in Middle East security at Georgetown University in Washington, says. After two Shiites were shot dead in gun battles in Awwamiya and al-Qatif in early Feburary, the cost of Saudi Arabia’s credit default swaps jumped 2 percent to 131.8, before retreating to 129.2. They reached a two-and-a-half- year high in January as Iranian threats to block the Strait of Hormuz, in response to a planned western oil embargo, stoked concerns of conflict in a region that supplies a fifth of the world’s crude. Most of that comes from Saudi Arabia, and the biggest Saudi oil fields are in the Eastern Province, home to most of the Saudi Shiite population, who have been suppressed and neglected for decades. It’s the second-largest Shiite community in the Persian Gulf after Iraq’s, comprising between 10 and 15 percent of the total of 19 million Saudi nationals, according to the U.S. State Department. Iran does not interfere in the internal affairs of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations, but the wave of Islamic awakening swept the region under the spiritual influence of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Discrimination Saudi Arabia largely escaped the unrest that spread across the Arab world last year, though there were protests in Awwamiya, al-Qatif and other eastern towns. Shiite cleric Tawfiq al-Amir was arrested after he called for a constitutional monarchy and equal rights. In al-Qatif, the graffiti shows Shiite resentment at their perceived exclusion from the country’s wealth. “Where is the oil money?” one slogan asks. Smashed street lights and road signs attest to recent violence in the Persian Gulf city. The U.S. State Department noted in a human-rights report on Saudi Arabia published in 2009 that Shiites in the kingdom face “significant political, economic, legal, social and religious discrimination condoned by the government.” Seventy-four students, mainly Shiites, from the Jubail Industrial College north of al-Qatif called on the government to penalize companies that discriminate in hiring, Safwa News reported on Feb. 3. Their petition criticized Saudi Arabian Mining Co., the kingdom’s largest miner, for excluding 60 Shiite students from an employment program. Calls to the company’s communications office weren’t answered yesterday. Shiite leaders held meetings with the late King Fahd in 1993 and were promised measures to address the region’s grievances. The Eastern Province is benefitting from King Abdullah’s $130 billion spending pledges last year, including a new stadium and roads in Awwamiya. The majority of people in Qatif have grievances and quite legitimate demands. Young Saudi Shiites, like their contemporaries elsewhere in the Arab world, are demanding change, Tawfiq al-Saif said. “There is the sense of being marginalized in the country among the Shiite young,” al-Saif said. “The younger generation feels that it is no longer the role of the leaders or elders to solve their problems. People want promises fulfilled.” The United States has been putting all its eggs in the Saudi basket of the Persian Gulf security system. If the Saudis don’t answer to the call of Islamic awakening and fail to reform the political system, the entire US-engineered security system will collapse in the region. M. Mirzai is an assistant professor, Azad University. | ||
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