Articles recently published in the Saudi press have been conspicuously and scathingly critical of the U.S., accusing it of supporting terror, committing crimes against humanity and violating human rights. The articles claimed that past U.S. administrations targeted Saudi Arabia in the service of hostile countries such as Iran, Qatar and Turkey, and that the current administration is especially guilty of this. The U.S. does this, they said, by supporting "terrorist" Islamist Saudi oppositionists and by interfering in the kingdom's internal affairs on the pretext of defending human rights. The articles stated further that U.S. history is replete with crimes against humanity, and that it ignores human rights violations in countries like Iran, and therefore that its criticism of human rights violations in Saudi Arabia is hypocritical.
These articles come against the backdrop of the tension between the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia and its allies, especially following several developments and statements: the publication of the U.S. intelligence report on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, which stated that Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) most likely gave the order to "capture or kill" the Saudi journalist in Istanbul in October 2018;[1] the administration's declaration that the issue of human rights in Saudi Arabia will be a key issue in U.S.-Saudi relations;[2] the administration's appeasing policy towards Iran and its Houthi allies, who perpetrate terror against Saudi Arabia; and the ending of U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.
The following are translated excerpts from some of these articles.
Columnist Muhammad Al-Sa'ed Lambastes "Ayatollah Biden"
Journalist Muhammad Al-Sa'ed wrote in his column in the Saudi daily 'Okaz that the left-leaning American administration and media are waging an open war against Saudi Arabia and supporting Saudi oppositionists. He especially attacked the Washington Post, where Jamal Khashoggi used to write:
"If you [Google] Biden's name, or [the name of] his son, or the name of any U.S. Congress member, or Google Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, or the Indians, you will drown in endless [information about] crimes. Aren't [the Americans] the ones who are turning a blind eye to Iran's [custom of] hanging activists and journalists from lampposts?... Do they remember… that Turkish oppositionists are abducted in [various] world capitals and [then] united with their families in Erdogan's prisons?...
"Why is the leftist U.S. waging this existential propaganda campaign against Saudi Arabia?... Has it despaired of its agents, who failed [to achieve their goals] in Hunayn and Al-Awamiyah[3] and in the entire 'Arab Autumn' enterprise? Has it started to wage the open war itself, instead of [relying on] its contractors, [and to target Saudi Arabia] just because of its resources and strategic importance?...
"They want us to embrace the terrorist agenda of [Saudi oppositionists Muhammad] Al-Mas'ari and Sa'd Al-Faqih, who were involved in projects of killing Saudis and foreigners;[4] of former Al-Qaeda member Yahya Al-'Assiri;[5] of the Turkish agent [known as] 'The Screwdriver' [a derogatory name for oppositionist Ahmad ibn Sa'id] and of the Canadian son of ISIS [apparently a reference to oppositionist 'Omar 'Abd Al-'Aziz].[6] [They want us to believe] that these are proponents of freedom and reform, when the fact is that they work for a certain contractor financed by a tiny state [Qatar] and want to deliver [Saudi Arabia] to their allies in Istanbul, Tehran and Kandahar…
"They want us to believe that the columnists of the Washington Post and New York Times and other leftist newspapers, and [figures on] the leftist television channels, are preaching lofty values rather than homosexuality, moral deviance and abnormality. They want us to believe their lies and fabrications, that the preachers of terror…are [actually] preaching [love of] life…
"Do you believe, oh Saudis, that those who sent your children to Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia and Bosnia to fight in civil wars there are now freedom fighters? We know them better than you, you hypocrite Westerners. You spared the old serpents, so you will [have to] live with their offspring. So let us say, 'thank you, [but] you will not deceive us.'"[7]
On March 8, Al-Sa'ed published another article, in which he claimed that the intelligence report on the Khashoggi assassination was a U.S. political move intended to appease Iran. He also posted passages from this article on his Twitter page, with an image of Biden in a turban and the hashtag 'Ayatollah Biden."[8]
Al-Sa'ed's tweet
Journalist Hamoud Abu Talib: The American 'Cowboy' Shamelessly Tramples International Law
Saudi journalist Hamoud Abu Talib wrote that the U.S. purports to defend international law but at the same time blatantly violates it: "The political mentality of some [figures] who have joined the U.S. administration is a cowboy-like mentality. They think, and treat the world and its countries and peoples, in the same arrogant and barbaric manner they used to adopt in the past...
"[The fact that] several U.S. political administrations in the third millennium have adopted this primitive pattern of thought casts a dark shadow on the ideological, scientific, and independent cultural elite of U.S. society. A country whose prestigious universities teach international law is blatantly violating this law and all laws, charters, and agreements [accepted] in international relations. At the same time, its senior officials talk about their intent to interfere in the sovereignty, laws, and legislative [processes] of other countries, in the service of evil, blatant, and loathsome agendas. Strangely, they talk as though the countries harmed [by their actions] are banana republics like [the countries] on which the U.S. used to force its corrupt rulers and agents decades ago...
"The world no longer consists of the ranges, mountains, and deserts where the cowboy could roam on his horse, drawing his gun and trampling anyone I who stood in his path or opposed him."[9]
Journalist Ibtisam Al-Qahtani: The Biden Administration Is A Platform For Harming Saudi Arabia In The Service Of Iran
Saudi columnist Ibtisam Al-Qahtani wrote: "The current activity of the U.S. administration makes it look as though it suffers from 'political Alzheimer's,' whose symptoms are flagrantly clear in statements and decisions it issues and then [turns around and] opposes…
"Saudi Arabia is their next conspiracy recycling project. The campaign of attacking and opposing the number two man in the country, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, and the exploitation of the Jamal Khashoggi affair by interest-driven institutions… within the Democratic Party gave the entire world the most horrifying glimpse in history of [the ugly face] of U.S. intelligence, which issued a failing, vague and sensationalist report [about the Khashoggi affair] based on assumptions and feeble conclusions… Reality has proven that the Democratic [Party's] slogans are nothing but smoke-bombs intended to conceal the facts and [America's] collaboration with Saudi Arabia's enemies.
"The change in America's action and mutual ties in the region shows that the Democratic [administration] serves as a platform for launching Iranian missiles against Saudi Arabia, and that the heir [to the throne of] the Democratic Party, [Joe] Biden, will not act against Iran's nuclear program. On the contrary, he will be its greatest ally and supporter, for Iran is the only agent so expert at [instigating] struggles, conflicts and chaos.
"The American condemnations of the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia will be worthless and ineffective, because [America's] removal of the terrorist [Houthi] militias from the list of terror organizations is a real act of terror. The failure to issue reports that prove the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Houthis in Yemen – the latest of which was burning of 450 Oromo Ethiopian migrants in a Sanaa jail[10] because they refused to join the [Houthi] militias and fight on the front against Saudi Arabia – is further terror…
"If the rights of Arab women interest the Democrats [even] more than the rights of American women, why do they ignore the rights of the Yemeni women, [who suffer] systematic degradation, oppression and violation of their rights and liberties by the [Houthi] militias…? Do 1,181 cases of [human rights] violation against Yemeni women incarcerated in Houthi jails, who were abducted, murdered, tortured, disfigured, sexually assaulted and raped, not count as violations that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity?…
"The U.S. administration must learn from the events, so as to avoid repeating its mistakes as part of its complicated [case of] political Alzheimer's."[11]
[1] Edition.cnn.com, February 26, 2021.
[2] Reuters.com, February 5, 2021.
[3] These are two locations in Saudi Arabia where activists called to hold anti-regime protests in 2011, as part of the Arab Spring.
[4] Al-Mas'ari heads the Al-Tajdid movement calling to overthrow the Saudi regime and establish an Islamic caliphate; Al-Faqih heads the Islamic Reform Movement, which likewise calls for the ouster of the regime and for instating shar'ia law.
[5] Al-'Assiri is the head of ALQST, a London-based organization dealing with human rights in Saudi Arabia, and a founder of the oppositionist National Assembly Party. After Khashoggi's assassination he called for MBS's resignation.
[6] 'Abd Al-'Aziz received asylum in Canada in 2014, and was a friend of Jamal Khashoggi.
[7] 'Okaz (Saudi Arabia), March 4, 2021.
[8] Twitter.com/massaaed, March 4, 2021.
[9] 'Okaz (Saudi Arabia), March 2, 2021.
[10] On March 7, 2021 a fire tore through a migrant detention center in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital of Sanaa, killing at least 45 migrants, most of them Ethiopians. The Houthis later admitted that the blaze had been caused by guards firing teargas canisters into a crowded hangar to end a protest by the migrants. Washingtonpost.com, March 20, 2021.
[11] Makkah (Saudi Arabia), March 13, 2021.
