“The kingdom has oil - and lots of it. But that's only part of the story. Saudia Arabia is important to the West not despite of its brutality but because of it, for the Saudi dictatorship's seen as a buttress against "instability" in a strategic region. Riyadh's deeply conservative leaders did everything they could to derail the Arab spring, suppressing an upsurge of democratic sentiment that threatened the regimes with whom the West had always done business.”

Why the West turns a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's brutality (September 29, 2015)

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Jeff Sparrow4

Australian writer 1969

Jeff Sparrow (1969) Australian writer

Why the West turns a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's brutality (September 29, 2015)

“We also call upon our Saudi neighbors to let us pursue a democratic path…. In many cases, Yemeni tribal leaders and other prominent individuals have received far more generous aid payments from Riyadh than from the Yemeni government…Saudi interference in Yemen is also motivated by a fear that the Arab Spring…might soon reach Riyadh”

Tawakkol Karman (1979) Yemeni journalist, politician, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient

2010s, Yemen’s Unfinished Revolution, 2011

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not a slave of colonial forces like you and others. … Do not indulge yourself in things you have no business with! The lie is before you and the grave is in front of you!”

Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (1924–2015) former King of Saudi Arabia

In reply to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the Arab League Summit in Egypt, 2 March 2003 when Abdullah was Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. هنيئاً لك أيها الوطن بهذه القيادة, جريدة الرياض, 2011/02/25, 2013-02-16 http://www.alriyadh.com/2011/02/25/article607898.html,

“The regime’s brutality and repression of the Syrian people, who have called for freedom and a representative government, not only endangers the Syrian people themselves, but also generates instability throughout the region.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate, on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to the Actions of the Government of Syria https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/05/09/letter-to-the-speaker-of-the-house-of-representatives-and-the-president-of-the-senate-on-the-continuation-of-the-national-emergency-with-respect-to-the-actions-of-the-government-of-syria-2/ <br class="br">2022, May 2022

“Who on earth do the Americans suppose their allies are amongst the Arab world? Even Saudi Arabia they seem to regard as nothing more than a resevoir of oil and money.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980) Shah of Iran

As quoted in Asadollah Alam (1991), The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1968-77, page 474
Attributed

“Iraq was far more dangerous to the region--the Middle east--than the reprehensible Saudi regime is or ever will become. It had after all launched two deeply destructive wars, and was intent on becoming hegemonic in the region.”

Kanan Makiya (1949) American orientalist

"Kanan Makiya speaks about Iraq 5 years later...", Washington Post (March 20, 2008)

“We know that we are a main goal for the Iranian regime. We will not wait until the battle becomes in Saudi Arabia but we will work to have the battle in Iran rather than in Saudi Arabia”

Mohammad bin Salman (1985) Saudi crown prince and minister of defense

2017-05-07 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-saudi-minister/iran-minister-warns-saudi-arabia-after-battle-comments-tasnim-idUSKBN1830Y7

“The strange thing is that it's always in Europe that dictatorships and totalitarian regimes spring up, yet it's always America that is "fascist."”

Jean-François Revel (1924–2006) French writer and philosopher

Source: 2000s, Anti-Americanism (2003), p. 156

“Saudi Arabia is in big, big trouble. Now, thanks to fracking and other things, the oil is all over the place. And I used to say it, there are ships at sea, and this was during the worst crisis, that were loaded up with oil, and the cartel kept the price up, because, again, they were smarter than our leaders. They were smarter than our leaders.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2015, Presidential Bid Announcement (June 16, 2015)

“London helps keep them all in power by providing training and equipment for "internal security", supporting Saudi forays to end democratisation in the region, as in Bahrain in 2011, and backing Riyadh's domination of Arabia, as now in Yemen. This British support for Gulf dictators pushes the emergence of democracy further away and encourages extremism.”

Mark Curtis (British author) British journalist and historian

Why the UK must rethink its support for Saudi Arabia http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/why-uk-must-rethink-its-support-saudi-arabia-2062603761 (2 March 2018), Middle East Eye.

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