Saudi Arabia Rejects UN Security Council Seat

Saudi Arabia on Friday rejected a seat on the UN Security Council only few hours after it was elected to the body, saying the Council has failed in its duties toward Syria and other international conflicts.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency that the Kingdom “announces its apology for not accepting membership of the Security Council until the Council is reformed and enabled, effectively and practically, to carry out its duties and responsibilities in maintaining international peace and security.”

Allowing the ruling regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria to kill its own people by chemical weapons without taking action against it, the statement said, is “irrefutable evidence” that the Council needs reform in order to be able to carry out its responsibilities.

The statement also said the Council has failed to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over the past decades and has failed to transform the Middle East into a zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

After Saudi Arabia was elected on Thursday to become one of the 10 nonpermanent members on the Council, the country’s UN Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi said Saudi election was “a reflection of a longstanding policy in support of moderation and in support of resolving disputes by peaceful means.”

The dramatic difference in tone between his statement and the Foreign Ministry statement today suggests that the Saudi Mission to the UN was in the dark about the ministry’s decision to reject the seat.

The Mission had spent a considerable time and effort to lobby for the position. A dozen of Saudi diplomats were also sent to Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in New York to take a special program designed to train them to work in the Security Council once Saudi Arabia is elected.

Saudi rejection of the seat is a strong indication of the country’s frustration with the Council’s record on Syria. Last month the Saudi foreign minister canceled a speech to the General Assembly citing the same reasons.

In February 2012 the Saudi king gave a rare speech criticizing Russia and China for vetoing a resolution on Syria at the United Nations Security Council. “We are going through scary days and unfortunately what happened at the United Nations is absolutely regrettable,” King Abdullah said in a brief address aired on state television.

Photo courtesy of Zack Lee via Flickr

Qatar Who?

WSJ reports on the return of Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan as a major power player in regional politics:

At a meeting to coordinate arms shipments last summer, Prince Bandar took a swipe at Qatar, a tiny nation with one of the region’s largest broadcasters.

Qatar is “nothing but 300 people…and a TV channel,” the Saudi prince yelled into a phone, according to a person familiar with the exchange. “That doesn’t make a country.”

Snap.

Prince Salman bin Sultan Appointed Deputy Defense Minister

King Abdullah issued a royal decree appointing Prince Salman bin Sultan deputy minister of defense, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Tuesday. Prince Salman, son of the late Crown Prince, replaces Prince Fahad bin Abdullah bin Mohammed who was appointed in this position last April.

THe royal decree said Prince Salman will be relieved from his previous position as Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC), an office that he has held for the past two years.

Born in February 2, 1976 in the eastern city of Dhahran, Salman bin Sultan is considered young by Saudi standard. He received his education in the kingdom and has a bachelor degree in military sciences from King Abdulaziz Military College. After graduation he started his career as a lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Defense Force. In 1999 he was transferred to the Saudi Military Mission in Washington DC where he remained until 2003 when his military service was concluded and he was appointed as a diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He worked at the Foreign Ministry until he joined the NSC, where he worked with his older half-brother Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former Saudi Ambassador in the US and current Chief of Intelligence.

Prince Salman is said to be playing an important role in Saudi handling for the crisis in Syria. Reuters reported last May that he was “running relations with the Syrian rebels,” as Saudi Arabia took over from Qatar as the main outside backer of the rebels.

The Saudi Re-emergence

Richard Spencer of the Daily Telegraph writes:

Saudi Arabia, not long ago written off as a gerontocracy whose oil billions could not prevent it being outmaneuvered by a host of rivals in the power struggles of the Middle East, has suddenly re-emerged as the region’s most powerful influence-peddler.

Fake ‘Gang Rape’ Fatwa

Some foreign news websites have fallen for a false story about a fatwa attributed to Saudi cleric Mohammed al-Arifi calling for the gang rape of Syrian women by fighters there. I tweeted yesterday that the story is false and was planning to write about it here but Ali Abunimah at the Electronic Intifada has already done a good job reporting this so please go read his post. Like other similar stories over the past few months, this one has gone viral despite the fact that it was clearly fake. Abunimah explains:

What these repeated episodes show is that it is easy for many people to believe negative and shocking information about unpopular and disreputable figures. When the claims are lurid – especially involving sex and violence – they spread more rapidly. And when they fit multiple agendas – as in this case – there’s apparently no limit to how far they can go.

Saudi Judge Incited Youth to Join Fight in Syria

A Saudi judge has encouraged a number of young people to join the rebels in Syria despite official warnings from the government against such action, the Times of London reported Friday.

Ibrahim Abdullah al-Hassani, a judge in the city of Buraidah at the ultraconservative central region of Qassim, has reportedly pushed youth on trial at his court to go fight “the war against the Shia.”

Those young people were on trial for a protest held on the National Day by the families of terrorism suspects last September. Saudi journalist Iman al-Qahtani, who shares a byline in the Times story with Hugh Tomlinson, later reported that 14 of those protesters received lashes and jail sentences.

However, after the judge handed them his verdict, he began criticizing the Shia and told the detainees that it was their religious duty to join the battle against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to the newspaper.

“The judge was lecturing and inciting them against the Shia in Syria. My son left court completely convinced to go to Syria,” Abdulrahman al-Talq, father of one of them, told the paper.

Few days later, his son Mohammed and five other co-defendants left the country heading to Syria. Last week he was reportedly killed there. He His parents learned of his death though the social networking site Twitter.

“I must be satisfied with God’s will, but I am angry for the reasons my son decided to leave,” the father told the Times. “The Government that bans all peaceful protest and criminalizes them with prison and flogging, and this judge who incites young people to fight. He isn’t fit to sit in a courtroom; he should be tried for inciting murder.”

The Saudi government has strongly supported the uprising against Assad. Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister, told the attendees of a meeting for the Syrian opposition in Morocco that the “Syrian regime has fully lost its legitimacy,” and pledged $ 100 million in aid to the Syrian people.

Saudi clerics have also expressed their support of the uprising, but stopped short of urging young people to join the jihad as they have previously done in Afghanistan and Iraq. Influential Saudi cleric Salman al-Odah warned in October against going to Syria to assist rebels, saying the arrival of youth to fight against the regime in Syria “will only complicate the crisis,” according to his official website.

However, the local media have reported on several cases of Saudi fighters killed in Syria during recent weeks. Al-Hayat daily for example identified two Saudi citizens who were earlier this month fighting alongside the Syrian rebels.

Al-Odah Warns Against Jihad in Syria

The Associated Press:

A Saudi cleric has advised Muslim youth against joining Syrian rebel fighters in the 19-month civil war against President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Salman al-Audah warns that their presence among the rebels might serve the Assad regime’s claim that the rebellion is the work of terrorist groups.

He told the Al-Jazeera satellite channel Monday that the Syrian rebels need money, weapons and prayers.

There have been reports that there are already some Saudi jihadists fighting with the rebels in Syria, but it is good to see al-Odah, a moderate voice with a sizable following among young Saudis, speak up against it. ♦

HRW Asks Saudi to Stop Prosecuting Protesters

Saudi Arabia should stop using the judicial system in the country to prosecute peaceful protesters and human rights activists, Human Rights Watch said today. The watchdog group said the lack of a clear and predictable criminal law violates international human rights standards, including the Arab Charter on Human Rights ratified by Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi authorities detain and punish individuals for doing nothing more than peacefully expressing legitimate grievances,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The Saudi government should stop using the judicial system to punish peaceful dissidents, and recognize that peaceful assembly is not a crime.”

Saudi authorities dispersed a protest by hundreds of Syrian pilgrims in Mina, outside Makkah yesterday, according to Reuters. The protesters were calling for the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Saudi government has said that they want a politics-free hajj, and urged pilgrims to focus on performing the rituals. However, it seems that the Saudi Grand Mufti did not get the memo. Addressing pilgrims in Makkah earlier this week, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Alsheikh criticized calls for democracy in the region.

The right to protest would be protected in a civil, democratic state. Saudi Arabia does not claim to be one, and protests are banned by the country’s law. But despite the ban, the Guardian’s Brian Whitaker notes that “the authorities seem to be making a distinction between “good” and “bad” demonstrations. The anti-Assad protesters at the hajj were treated more gently than might have been expected – presumably because they were expressing a view that accords with Saudi government policy.”

The Saudi government has supported that uprising against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in Syria. Protests against the Saudi government, like the ones held frequently in the eastern region of Qatif, are usually not treated in the same way. 15 people have been killed there since last November.

No Ban On Syrian Pilgrims

Saudi Arabia rejected claims made by Syria that Syrian citizens will not be able to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage this year due to the deteriorated relations between the two countries over the uprising in Syria.

“The [Hajj] Ministry would like to make it clear that the arrangements to welcome Syrian pilgrims are at the center of our attention due to the difficult situation of the brotherly Syrian people,” a government spokesman told Al Arabiya Wednesday.

Saudi Crown Prince Salman promised that the country would mobilize all its resources for the upcoming pilgrimage season scheduled to begin next month, according to a report carried by the official Saudi news agency.

“We take great pride in this, but this is also a huge responsibility for us,” he said.

Syria‘s state news agency SANA said Tuesday the Syrian side carried out all required procedures but Saudi authorities failed to agree on details on time, according to the Associated Press.

Countries normally agree on numbers of pilgrims to travel to Makkah for the Hajj ahead of time.

The Saudi government rejected requests by 40 countries to increase their Hajj quota this year due development projects currently under way Makkah and Medina, local media said today.

“The ministry has apologized to all countries which had asked to increase the number of their pilgrims this year… (because of) the giant development projects in Makkah and Medina which make it difficult to accommodate more numbers,” said Hajj minister Bandar al-Hajjar, according to the local al-Madinah daily.

The quota system used by the Saudi government to determine the number of pilgrims allows every Muslim country to send 1,000 pilgrims per million inhabitants.

Spotted: Bandar in Doha

The Guardian Middle East editor Ian Black has written a short profile of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi intelligence chief, in relation with his role in the Syrian unrest:

The normally flamboyant Bandar – he has a penchant for cigars and flies in a private Airbus – had kept a low profile since returning to Riyadh in 2005 and becoming head of the national security council. But he was often photographed with senior US officials, most recently during a visit by the CIA director, General David Petraeus.

Bandar is back, big time now. You wouldn’t know, of course, because Bandar does not like to talk about it and doesn’t do his business in plain view. The way Bandar likes to do business, as he has always done as ambassador in Washington DC for 22 years, is behind scenes and under the table. His visit to Doha Wednesday was one of the rare public appearances that he has made since being appoint intelligence chief last July.