In this new video, Frank Gaffney interviews me about the underestimated danger of the Houthis, the hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars in humanitarian aid that are missing and believed in the hands of the Taliban, and the question of Saudi Arabia: is it really considering normalization with Israel, and at what cost?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Interesting discussion. Particularly the discussion about Saudi Arabia and its role
One thing worth noting: while MbS may be the de-facto ruler of Saudi Arabia on all sorts of matters, particularly regarding that country’s education & development, his father King Salman still calls the shot on one issue: Israel. He made it clear when he came to the throne in 2015 that those relations w/ Israel will only improve once the Palestinian issue is resolved. Which is why even when 4 countries – Emirates, Bahrein, Morocco and Sudan signed the Abraham Accords, it was well known that Saudi Arabia would only get on board after the number of Arab countries joining in would re,ach a critical mass. As far as the muslim world league goes, it is a rival of the muslim brotherhood, which is more hostile to the shi’a: that may explain why they’re trying to co-opt the shi’a, especially after Saudi Arabia’s settlement w/ Iran
The other thing worth noting about Saudi Arabia is that after Biden came to power, one of his first acts was to badmouth the Saudis over the Khashoggi murder, which could have been just rhetoric for public consumption, but what was worse was that they cancelled some $0.5T worth or arms shipments to Riyadh, thereby risking their exposure to both the Houthis and Iran. Unlike Israel, which can’t get Russia or China on its side, Saudi Arabia is not as SOL. First, they signed a treaty w/ Iran under Chinese supervision ending all hostilities – thereby freeing themselves from Houthi attacks. If they weren’t gonna get US weapons, their next best bet was to end those hostilities
The next thing they did once the Ukraine war started was to start signing bilateral deals w/ countries like China to accept payments for oil in currencies other than the US dollar, and a month ago, their 50 year treaty w/ the US where only the dollar would be accepted as payment for oil internationally was allowed to lapse. So Saudi Arabia managed to punish the Biden Administration for betraying them, and are now totally out of our influence. If one split the world into blocs the way they were during the Cold War, the Saudis are definitely in the China led bloc now
About the Houthis, one thing I found interesting: if they wanna establish a worldwide Zaidi caliphate, then at some point, forget their sunni opposition: they’ll get to clash w/ Iran as well. After all, Iran follows the Twelver sect, whereas the Houthis follow the Zaidi sect, which have different legitimate successors of Muhammad. I get that they are fanatical and all that, but there are less than a million of them. Forget the toothless infidel world: there is no way that 1.7 billion sunnis are gonna let them walk all over, be it the Taliban, the Pakistanis, or anybody else
The next US administration must keep an eye on Turkey, which is trying to put together a neo-caliphate. The Iranian regime can collapse soon after sanctions are re-imposed, but then there will be an all-sunni ganging up against Israel, India, Europe and others. Unless the West can ensure that the Arabs and the Turks are at each other’s throats, the way they were in Syria
beeaware says
Gaffney NEVER talks TOUGH on ISLAM
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Gaffney focuses more on the symptoms, rather than the disease. However, to his credit, he never says anything about islam – positive or negative. His expertize is in national and global security, and it’s through those lenses that he sees the world
I do wish that in addition to Iran and its stooges, that he would see and focus more on Turkey, which our foreign policy establishment still thinks of as an ally. Their blindness on Turkey is almost as bad as their blindness on Pakistan used to be, despite Osama being found in their equivalent of Arlington, VA