MESOP : “DER SPIEGEL” (GERMANY) INTERVIEW : Saudis Maintain Caution Over Arms to Rebels

Speaking with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir supported provision of anti-aircraft weapons to rebels in principle, but stood back from any implementation:

We believe that introducing surface-to-air missiles in Syria is going to change the balance of power on the ground. It will allow the moderate opposition to be able to neutralize the helicopters and aircraft that are dropping chemicals and have been carpet-bombing them, just like surface-to-air missiles in Afghanistan were able to change the balance of power there.

This has to be studied very carefully, however, because you don’t want such weapons to fall into the wrong hands. This is a decision that the international coalition will have to make. This is not Saudi Arabia’s decision.

Saudi Arabia has been a leading backer of the Syrian rebellion since 2011, supplying heavy weaponry such as anti-tank missiles and rockets. However, it has always refrained from the supply of anti-aircraft weaponry — essential to counter the regime’s main advantage of bombing — because of objections by the US.

The Saudis have been angered by American indecision since 2013, and recently by Washington’s shift of support from rebels to Kurdish-led forces — some of whom are now attacking the rebel units whom the US had previously backed. However, Jubeir’s statement indicates that Riyadh will not defy the Obama Administration.

The Foreign Minister said that President Assad must leave power at “the beginning, not at the end of the process” for a political transition, ensuring that it will “happen with less death and destruction”. However, he continued to back the path laid by the US and Russia for talks, even though these have shown little prospect of advance: “We are at a very delicate juncture, and it may not work, but we have to try it.”

Jubeir did hint at an escalation of military attempts to remove Assad once Riyadh decided there was no value in the pursuit of negotiations: “Should the political process not work, there is always the other approach.”

Asked if the Obama Administration’s approach to the Middle East was a mistake, Jubeir sidestepped any challenge to the Americans:

I don’t believe in the theory that the United States is reducing its presence in the Middle East. Quite the contrary, in the Gulf, we see an increase in American military presence, as well as an increase in American investments. The argument is more accurate when one says America is focusing more attention to the Far East. But I don’t believe it comes at the expense of the Middle East.

But the Foreign Minister did sustain Riyadh’s hostile rhetoric towards Iran, a key backer along with Russia of the Assad regime:

We have no issue with seeking to develop the best terms we can with Iran. But after the revolution of 1979, Iran embarked on a policy of sectarianism. Iran began a policy of expanding its revolution, of interfering with the affairs of its neighbors, a policy of assassinating diplomats and of attacking embassies. Iran is responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in the Kingdom, it is responsible for smuggling explosives and drugs into Saudi Arabia. And Iran is responsible for setting up sectarian militias in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, whose objective is to destabilize those countries. www.mesop.de