The US, Saudi Deal over Libya

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)


You invade Bahrain. We take out Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. This, in short, is the essence of a deal struck between the Barack Obama administration and the House of Saud. Two diplomatic sources at the United Nations independently confirmed that Washington, via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave the go-ahead for Saudi Arabia to invade Bahrain and crush the pro-democracy movement in their neighbor in exchange for a “yes” vote by the Arab League for a no-fly zone over Libya – the main rationale that led to United Nations Security Council resolution 1973.

The revelation came from two different diplomats, a European and a member of the BRIC group, and was made separately to a US scholar and Asia Times Online. According to diplomatic protocol, their names cannot be disclosed. One of the diplomats said, “This is the reason why we could not support resolution 1973. We were arguing that Libya, Bahrain and Yemen were similar cases, and calling for a fact-finding mission. We maintain our official position that the resolution is not clear, and may be interpreted in a belligerent manner.”

As Asia Times Online has reported, a full Arab League endorsement of a no-fly zone is a myth. Of the 22 full members, only 11 were present at the voting. Six of them were Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, the US-supported club of Gulf kingdoms/sheikhdoms, of which Saudi Arabia is the top dog. Syria and Algeria were against it. Saudi Arabia only had to “seduce” three other members to get the vote.

Translation: only nine out of 22 members of the Arab League voted for the no-fly zone. The vote was essentially a House of Saud-led operation, with Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa keen to polish his CV with Washington with an eye to become the next Egyptian President.

Thus, in the beginning, there was the great 2011 Arab revolt. Then, inexorably, came the US-Saudi counter-revolution.

More… from Pepe Escobar today

8 comments

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    • Edger on April 1, 2011 at 16:28
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    • RiaD on April 1, 2011 at 17:34

    the song…

    but the news…?

    fehhhhhk!

    • TMC on April 1, 2011 at 22:38

    how long it would be before that got out.

    • Xanthe on April 2, 2011 at 01:01

    Does this mean Samantha Powers takes back what she said about Hillary now that’s she’s in the eye of the storm.

    No, I do not condone Hillary’s actions – but love that she is getting the publicity.  Okay, maybe she wants it but it works in obama’s favor.

     

  1. The White House and Pentagon must think the American people are idiots who’ll buy into any lame, official explanation. Of course it’s worked in the past, so…………?

    In reality, the MIC is the one laughing all the way to the bank. Just think, in ten years the U.S. has destabilized a whole area of the world (that keeps on growing), and has somehow created the BUSH-OBAMA doctrine that Terrorists and Dictators are subject to removal or destruction based upon either a subjective threat to the U.S. and its interests or a selective decision to take down a government that is a threat to its own people.

    NATO is now an offensive organization, while the primary oil producing puppets have formed their own offensive organization supported by NATO. The English, French and Americans just can’t quite extricate themselves from the quagmire they started 150 years ago, and so have drawn a 21st century, phantom distinction between Dictators and Monarchies. What a bunch of ass kissing, oil driven, craven slimeballs hiding behind Democracy to continue the Great Colonial Enterprise of stealing, killing and all sorts of bizarre games to protect the wealth of the elite.

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