By Zvi Barel om den Saudiska-Syriska kampen för inflyttande i Libanon.
Lebanon, always Lebanon – Haaretz – Israel News
Granted, mutual loathing between Saudi Arabia and Syria is nothing new, but last August as well, it was Lebanon that soured their relations anew. Speaking in support of Hezbollah in a speech delivered after the Second Lebanon War, Assad annoyed King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia by calling the Arab leaders ”half-men” for failing to back the Shi’ite militia. Since then the relations appear to have been mended and Assad was welcomed with all due respect at the Riyadh summit in March. But their mutual mistrust has not abated. Saudi Arabia, which has itself entered into an agreement with Iran, is angry about the Syrian-Iranian axis and dislikes Syria’s close relations with the Shi’ite leadership in Iraq, and the government headed by Nouri al-Maliki. Saudi Arabia views al-Maliki as an Iranian stooge who’s turning Iraq into a direct threat to Saudi Arabia.
Syria, on the other hand, received al-Maliki with fanfare last week. Damascus also opened an embassy in Baghdad, something Saudi Arabia so far hasn’t done, and is seeking to reopen the Iraqi oil pipeline passing through Syria. In Saudi Arabia’s opinion, with these moves Syria is making itself into an integral member of the Shi’ite circle in the Middle East, and is thus acting against the interests of most of the Arab countries.
Saudi Arabia is no paragon of virtue either. It is suspected of aiding Sunni organizations that are undermining the government in Baghdad, and of frustrating the establishment of a unity government in Iraq. Terrorists apparently operating alongside extremist Sunni organizations pass undisturbed into Iraq from Saudi Arabia. But unlike Syria, which is suspected of much the same, Saudi Arabia is a dear friend of Washington.
Now Syria is trying to take revenge on Saudi Arabia through Lebanon. It isn’t just a question of any personal umbrage Assad may harbor over Saudi Arabia heading the political group that caused Syria’s expulsion from Lebanon in 2005, nor is it just because Saudi Arabia vigorously advocated convening an international court to judge Hariri’s killers.
Saudi Arabia has ousted it from every possible body in the Middle East, Syria thinks, and even sabotaged the possibility of its renewing negotiations with Israel. Now Saudi Arabia is supporting the international conference that President George Bush is promoting, to which Syria isn’t even invited. Syria, which threw its support behind the Saudi Arabian initiative at the last moment — and is now using that support as leverage to negotiate for the return of the Golan Heights — is discovering that the international conference won’t be addressing it as an issue at all. The conference mandate is confined to the Palestinians. Lebanon is the only arena left where Syria can flex its muscles.
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