I would like to seek permission from the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council to present a brief balance sheet of the political practices and achievements in the Arab world over the past two years.
I would like to start with Egypt, a country close to the hearts of almost everyone. A popular uprising took place in this country and this uprising came to be known as the “January 25 revolution”. The revolution brought down the autocracy of long-standing Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.
When the revolution erupted, Egyptians were full of hope that the future of their country would be better. Some GCC states supported the revolution while others opposed it. But both sides spent huge amounts of money backing some parties against the others for the point of view they adopted towards the uprising.
A revolution-coup-uprising also took place in Egypt on July 3, 2013, bringing down a government that was brought to office through honest and fair elections witnessed by both friend and foe. The elections brought to office an academically qualified man and a political activist, namely Mohammed Mursi.
Some of you backed this coup and spent huge amounts of money to make this support felt. Another group of leaders did not support it. Some estimates put the amount of money poured into Egypt during this period at around $25bn. Even with this, the condition of the Egyptian people has not changed. Only army leaders and the coup-makers have benefited. The remnants of the former Mubarak regime and an opportunist media also benefited from this money. The result was that we sustained huge losses in Egypt.
Syria
A fierce war is being waged in Syria against the people of the country by the rulers of Damascus and Shia leaders in Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon. They are working tooth and nail only to keep Bashar Al Assad in power, even if at the expense of the Syrian people.
The GCC states were not absent from the Syrian uprising or revolution. Conferences were held in almost every capital, including Gulf capitals, under the name of “Friends of the Syrian People”, but none of these conferences managed to present anything fruitful to the Syrian people. The revolutionaries of Syria got fed up with promises of weapons, money and soldiers, none of which were given to them.
More than five million Syrians are internally displaced or have migrated out of Syria to live in refugee camps without adequate shelter, medicines and food, and the most affect of these are children and the elderly. Irregular humanitarian aid reaches the refugee camps from time to time.
The leaders of the GCC did not spare any effort in providing the Syrian revolutionaries with weapons, according to statements released by the leaders through the media in their countries. But the weapons given so far are conventional weapons that do not deter enemies or protect friends. Tens of billions of dollars were spent in this regard and Gulf countries were divided on the method of giving this support, and because of that the revolutionaries themselves are split along different loyalties and ties.
We were hopeful when Prince Bandar bin Sultan made promises and issued threats but until now nothing has happened. Everyone pinned his hopes on the US and the West supporting the Syrian revolution and sending weapons. The West, however, found divisions and many Islamist groups on the ground, which made it decide not to give any arms to the revolution, leaving them together with Syrian citizens prone to the weapons of mass destruction and barrels of explosives used by the troops of Bashar Al Assad.
Several Gulf countries went to Moscow to sign contracts for the purchase of Russian weapons. These contracts also include huge investments and intelligence cooperation on Islamists. The value of all these contracts was estimated at $30bn. Despite this, Russia has not changed its position and continues to support Bashar Al Assad and Iran.
Russia offers Al Assad the logistics and arms he needs to counter the revolutionaries. Iran has thrown the bulk of its military, financial, energy and human resources behind Al Assad.
In 2011, Gulf countries bought weapons worth $123bn, according to the Ahram digital edition report prepared by Hala Ibrahim. The question is: what is the use of these weapons if they do not help the Syrian people achieve victory?
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was created originally by the Syrian regime and gets support from Iran. The proof to this is that Bashar Al Assad has not fought against the movement so far as its aim is to fight the Free Syrian Army and kick it out of the liberated areas.
ISIS eradicated the Organization of Syrian Falcons and the Descendants of the Prophet movement, which were fighting against the rulers in Damascus. This proves that the ISIS is part of the Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian regimes. Now, why do not our leaders offer their backing to the Syrian opposition and provide them what they need, similar to what Iran is doing with the Syrian regime? In this regard, too, we have sustained huge losses.
Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has managed, under planning from Tehran and the supervision of Kasim Sulaymani, commander of the Quds Force at the Iran Revolutionary Guard; to form a new Al Qaeda in Iraq and ISIS in Syria, and provide them with all kinds of weapons needed for the current war in Syria and the Iraqi province of Al Anbar.
Al Maliki and Iran’s aims are to eradicate everybody opposing the Iranian hegemony over Iraq and also support the sectarian regimes in Iraq and Syria. Al Maliki demonstrated his sectarian outlook on affairs in his country when he said that for him Karbala was the direction in which to pray (not Makkah) and that the Iraqi army was the army of Imam Hussein fighting against the army of Yazid and there was a sea between us and them (referring to the Sunnis of Al Anbar province).
The people of Iraq, who oppose Al Maliki and his policies as well as the Iranian domination of Iraq, are being killed in large numbers. In killing these people, Al Maliki claims he is fighting ISIS. Even with all this, our leaders do not offer support to the afflicted people of Iraq.
To sum this up, I want to say to the Gulf leaders: You have sustained huge losses as a result of your policies across the Arab world. You supported the military in Egypt and turned it into a nightmare; procrastinated in backing the Syrian regime; continue to ignore what is happening in Iraq; and allowed Iran to besiege you all. Do you realise what all this means?
