Arab Sprung?

By Steve Hynd

Protesters in Egypt are calling for a "second revolution" to speed the pace of reforms. Bombs are still falling on Libya despite months of "any day now" escalation and now Yemen's dictator is conducting airstrikes on his own rebels in an echo of the actions that led to a UNSC resolution imposing a No Fly (and no-drive) Zone on Gadaffi's military. The UK and France are already pushing for more UN action on Syria - we all know where that ends and I have no doubt that eventually Yemen will be included in their neoliberal interventionist zeal too.

So it's interesting to read in the NY Times today of Saudi funding and direction of the Arab "counterrevolution" - propping up Sunni monarchic states partly to protect the Saudi nobility's own sinecures and partly in proxy war with Shiite Iran.

From Egypt, where the Saudis dispensed $4 billion in aid last week to shore up the ruling military council, to Yemen, where it is trying to ease out the president, to the kingdoms of Jordan and Morocco, which it has invited to join a union of Gulf monarchies, Saudi Arabia is scrambling to forestall more radical change and block Iran�s influence.

The kingdom is aggressively emphasizing the relative stability of monarchies, part of an effort to avert any dramatic shift from the authoritarian model, which would generate uncomfortable questions about the glacial pace of political and social change at home.

Saudi Arabia�s proposal to include Jordan and Morocco in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council � which authorized the Saudis to send in troops to quell a largely Shiite Muslim rebellion in the Sunni Muslim monarchy of Bahrain � is intended to create a kind of �Club of Kings.� The idea is to signal Shiite Iran that the Sunni Arab monarchs will defend their interests, analysts said.

The saudis have sent troops to forcibly put down protests in Bahrain, have been largely silent on Syria and Yemen and "after helping push through an Arab League request for international intervention, Saudi Arabia sat out and left its neighbors, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, to join the military coalition supporting the rebels". That would appear to put the Saudi monsachy squarely at odds with the Obama administration's rhetoric and promises for the region, yet for all that:

Saudi Arabia is negotiating to buy $60 billion in advanced American weapons, and President Obama, in his speech last week demanding that Middle Eastern autocrats bow to popular demands for democracy, noticeably did not mention Saudi Arabia. The Saudi ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir, sat prominently in the front row.

It seems to be too much to ask that the US, in any administration, should practise what it preaches and hold it allies to the same standard.