Saudi journalist, Global Opinions columnist for the Washington Post, and former editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel Jamal Khashoggi offers remarks during POMED’s “Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia: A Deeper Look”. Picture: Wikimedia Commons.
By Wesley Seale
On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the silencing of the Saudi dissident, Jamal Khashoggi, the international community was met with silence this week from much of the Arab world in the wake of Iran’s response to illegal Israeli actions.
Iran reacted to Israel’s violation of Iranian sovereignty with the assassination of Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, at the end of July as well as Israeli assassination of Hezbollah leader, Syed Hassan Nasrallah.
Yet again, the silence from what Khashoggi once described as the ‘kingdom of silence’, Saudi Arabia, was most resounding.
As Israel pursued genocide in Gaza, the Arab world, apart from a few, was silent.
As Israel started bombing Lebanon, the Arab world, except for a few instances, was silent.
As Israel targeted and baited Iran, the Arab world remained silent.
For BRICS Plus nations the responses, or silence, from Egypt and the UAE in the face of a fellow member of the partnership, Iran, coming under attack should be concerning.
Yet the question remains: do BRICS Plus countries see themselves as allies?
The response or lack thereof by the Arab world can best be described by Khashoggi when he said: “The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power.”
In other words, Arab leaders live in and rule by fear.
The memories of the Arab Spring live fresh in the minds of the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and others in the region.
If the West could use and betray Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and later Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, there is no stopping them from simply betraying these Arab leaders when they are done using them.
Former US president, Barack Obama, himself recalled later the words of UAE leader, Muhammad bin-Zayed (MbZ), in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. MbZ had said to Obama: “The public message [of the US pushing the Egyptian president to resign] does not affect Mubarak, you see, but it affects the region.”
In that instance, the US had used and now it was time to dispose of Hosni Mubarak.
However, one thing is for sure: Arab leaders look to the leader of the Arab world, Saudi Arabia, to lead the response to the Israeli-Gaza-Lebanon-Iranian conflict.
Turkish academic, Omar Munassar, suggests that the reaction, or lack thereof, by Saudi Arabia has much more to do with its domestic priorities than with fighting the Palestinian cause or seeing Iran as a regional adversary.
Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MbS) has introduced Vision 2030 and, while a regional war between Israel and Iran may tilt the balance in Arab favour, the focus has been to diversify friends, looking to China and Russia alongside the US, withdrawing from regional wars such as the one in Yemen, maintaining peace with Iran and prioritizing domestic reforms and development.
As part of this broader reform, MbS has been willing to repair relations with Iran after decades of tensions and after the ‘annus horribilis’ of 2016 when several incidences occurred that seriously damaged the relations between the two regional powerhouses.
The singular most critical failure by BRICS Plus countries hitherto has been to entice confirmation from Saudi Arabia of its membership of the group.
Yet this failure stems from the group meaning different things to its different members.
Fellow BRICS Plus member, Egypt, has adopted the same cautious approach as the regional leader, Saudi Arabia, as fellow BRICS Plus members: Russia and South Africa.
Having severed ties with Iran because of the recognition of Israel in 1980, Egyptian leaders continue to tread cautiously not only because of possible retaliation by the US which funds much of its military but also because of its population.
Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, brought to power through a coup in 2014, knows that he too can suffer the same fate as his predecessor, Mubarak.
MbZ though, like MbS in Saudi Arabia, has been willing to normalize ties with Iran.
It was during 2016, the ‘annus horribilis’ of Iranian-Saudi relations, that the UAE also downgraded its relations with Iran in support of Riyadh.
According to Chatham House deputy director, Sanam Vakil, the UAE has resolved to mend its relations with Iran simply because it has realized that no other country can protect it from Iran.
It is therefore only in Emirati interests to establish good relations with Iran.
While the Iranians responded to Israeli aggression, the Prime Minister of Russia, Mikhail Mishustin, landed in Tehran, his visit forms part of preparations for the BRICS Plus summit scheduled for later this month in Kazan.
Nevertheless Russia, with its attention focused on its border with Ukraine, seems to be the only BRICS Plus country willing to put its money where its mouth is in respect of the conflict.
While South Africa sits back and waits on the Hague to make a decision even in the face of Israel ignoring countless ICC rulings, the international community, and certainly the developing world, must not hold its breath to think that the BRICS Plus nations will be any better in their response to the conflict than West.
Even worse still, it is more likely that they will adopt Arabian silence.
* Dr Wesley Seale has a PhD in international relations.
** The views in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The African
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