Sunday, March 18, 2012

Saudi Arabia reported to be sending military equipment to Syrian rebels







AFP reports that a top Arab diplomat told them: "Saudi military equipment is on its way to Jordan to arm the Free Syrian Army," Of course the diplomat insisted on remaining anonymous and so the report may be incorrect. Russia has been arming the Assad regime.

Jordan has denied that there is any such move and insists it wants a diplomatic solution. Jordan's economy is suffering from the conflict. For its part Syria claims that Saudi Arabia is sending terrorists to wreak havoc in the country.

Certainly recent suicide bombing that have killed dozens often at key government installations shows that terrorists are at work in Syria wherever they came from. The rebels have claimed that these attacks could be staged by the government to paint the opposition as terrorists. This is extremely unlikely given the nature of the targets.

Assad is definitely slaughtering many people who simply want democracy and have no connection to terrorism. On the other hand it is also clear that there is a majority Sunni, minority Shia conflict involved in Syria that is developing into a civil war. There is even an army of sorts formed mostly from soldiers who have defected from the Syrian forces. As a majority Sunni country the Saudi monarchy would be happy to see the Asssad Shia minority Alawite group replaced by the Sunni majority. This certainly would curb Iranian influence in the regime. The move has little to do with promoting democracy per se. Saudi Arabia is hardly a beacon of democratic reform!

On the side of the rebels are Al Qaeda--and also Hamas for that matter. Al Qaeda or other militants are no doubt behind the suicide bombings not the Syrian government. For much more see this AFP article. in Yahoo news.

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