Saudi criticism of US 'not courageous'

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 07:06:48 GMT | PressTV

American political analyst Gareth Porter talking to Press TV, Jan. 25 US historian Gareth Porter says Saudi criticism of Washington's support for Israel is far from courageous now that a ceasefire is in place. Riyadh should have acted during President George Bush's term when Israel was launching deadly raids against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the renowned investigative journalist told Press TV on Sunday. "Well I think it is an extraordinary case of a Saudi criticism of a US foreign policy and certainly indicts the previous administration… I think the fact that it was done immediately after George Bush was out of office shows that it was not intended to be an effort to come to loggerheads with President [Barack Obama]," said Porter. "It probably indicates that the Saudis believe that Obama will have a rather different policy. This statement has to be understood as one that is made after George Bush left office and therefore not suffering any political consequences of conflict with a sitting US president," he said. "So, definitely it is not a courageous an act as it would have been had it been done during the war and during President Bush's term in office," he added. Porter's comments came after Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal made quite unprecedented remarks about how Washington's staunch support for Israel had put close ties between Saudi Arabia and the US at risk. President George W. Bush left a 'sickening legacy' in the Middle East, the former Saudi intelligence chief and US envoy said in a Friday interview with the Financial Times. Turki described the Israeli onslaught as butchery backed by what he called Washington's unforgivable arrogant attitude. He added that Israel's three-week assault on the Gaza Strip had made the Arab-Israeli peace process and 'pleas for optimism and co-operation now seem a distant memory.' More than 1340 Palestinian lives were lost during Israel's bloody military campaign in Gaza. During the three-week ordeal Saudi Arabia and Egypt came under heavy attacks in the Muslim world for their silence and support for Israel. US author and peace activist Alfred Lambremont Webre, in a Press TV interview, Jan. 25 Commenting on the recent Saudi move, US author and peace activist Alfred Lambremont Webre said that the issue is much deeper than just a desire to avoid confrontation with the US administration. Webre pointed to the close ties between the Saudi royal family and the Bush family and said that Saudis collaborated with the past administration to topple the democratically-elected government of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "On the day of September 11, 2001 [attack], which was a false flag operation carried out by President George W. Bush in concert with his father George H.W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, members of the Bin Laden family were flown out of the US in the only aircraft allowed to fly in the entire continental United States and Canada," Webre told Press TV. "So I think it was much more to do with family ties and with an agreement between the Bush family, which is a Zionist family, and their agreement to go along with the Israeli attempted extermination of the Palestinian people, and the Saudi royal family being on that fix and being surprised by the resistance of Hamas, which has come out as a clear democratic winner on the side of constitutional order," he added. MJ/DT

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