Earlier this month, some 164 Syrian expatriates rallied in the Saudi capital city of Riyadh to protest against the Assad regime’s violent crackdown on dissent and to cheer comments made by Jordanian King Abdullah criticizing that crackdown.
According to direct Rami Abdelrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the protesters wanted to “express support for the King as the first Arab ruler to express his opinion publicly about the situation in Syria.”
Expressing opinions publicly is a big no-no in Saudi Arabia, however, which earlier this year invaded Bahrain to help the regime there crush pro-democracy protests, and the 164 expat protesters were arrested for violating a Saudi ban on all public demonstrations.
The detentions reflect Saudi paranoia about dissent in any form, but are particularly noteworthy in this case because the Saudi Kingdom seems to be hoping that Assad is overthrown in favor of a more Saudi-friendly government. Even demonstrators taking a position largely congruent with regime interests aren’t exempt from the Saudi police state, it seems.
Protests in Saudi Arabia may have halted, but the ones in Syria are continuing apace, as are crackdowns in the east, where troops killed at least one person and arrested scores.
Oh, lovely! The Saudis are now arresting Syrians too. How nice! Hey, with a friend and ally like Saudi Arabia, who needs Israel?
And, once again, let's hear the US condemnations of Saudi Arabia for that.
When FDR was told that Stalin was a brutal dictator – his response was – "but he's our dictator" – FDR wrongly thought that Stalin would be his puppet.
So – either the US has imposed brutal dictators on peoples (like the Shah on Iran) or has supported brutal dictators – and then when they are finally overthrown we wonder why the new leaders and the peoples of those countries do NOT like US.
With 'friends' and 'allies' like Saudi Arabia and Israel – we have no need for other enemies.
Are we stupid or what?