After the assassination of Osama Bin Laden and the Arab uprising across the Middle East the West is taking a hard look at its own foreign policy in the region unsettling the status quo and their leaders.
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Fmr. US Embassy Tehran © flickr/pooyan |
This was no more evident when the US changed its policy and withdrawing support for Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak much to the annoyance of it main ally in the region Saudi Arabia. This policy is now unravelling further with the eminent downfall of Saleh in Yemen which is now creating a security dilemma in other Gulf states which have also adopted the same pro-American policy at the expense of personal freedoms of its own people...
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In the past countries in the Gulf region have played on the threat of Islamic extremism and that only their autocratic regime can keep this threat at bay. In return countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Yemen have secured military support and muted criticisms of their human rights record. The ‘Arab spring’ has shown that this policy is unsustainable and although reluctantly is changing western policy.
Saudi response to the uprisings in the region and in its own tribal areas has blamed Iran’s growing influence at it borders as the reason for the ‘Arab spring’ in the Gulf. The deployment of Saudi forces in Bahrain to counter the pro-democracy movement has been the most direct result of this policy to date. Although much maligned in the western media the US has been forced to kowtow to the Saudis shortly after criticising their military intervention and is now moving closer to the Saudi policy. This is unsurprising as Saudi Arabia holds much influence in Washington D.C. and there are obvious reasons on both sides to keep the status quo such as oil security.
If the over exaggerated Iranian threat succeeds to become the mainstream Western policy in the Middle East it will only serve to prop up despotic regimes and continue the security threat in the West and the Islamic world. This is time for the West to be idealistic and support the Arab people and not their unelected leaders if we are to end the circle of violence and the basis by which Islamic extremism has flourished. If the West is interested in democracy and its own security it will need to abandon the culture of fear and trust the Arab people.
