http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NH17Ak04.html
Aug 17, 2012
THE ROVING EYE
All (war) roads lead to Mecca
Pepe Escobar
This was undoubtedly BIG. Everyone and his neighbor were there. The Emir of
Qatar, President Morsi from Egypt, President Gul from Turkey, Palestinian
Authority's Mahmud Abbas, Hamid Karzai The Afghan, Prime Minister Zardari from
Pakistan, Marzouki the new Tunisian leader, King Abdullah from Jordan, Iranian
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad himself. All 57 member-states of the Organization
of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) - representing no fewer than 1.5 billion Muslims
worldwide.
Arab News couldn't resist waxing poetically. What about ...
"In Makkah, last night the Holy Kaaba and the Grand Mosque was bathed in
bright lights. The giant Clock Tower glowed in green lights on a clear,
moonless night. As the muezzin's heart-warming voice reverberated in the
mountainous city at Isha, the world's leaders, sitting in the Al-Safa Palace
next to the Grand Mosque, repeated Allah-o-Akbar after him."
Allah Akbar indeed - and then straight to the business in which these
"leaders" excel; squabbling among themselves - and suspending Syria from the
OIC. So much for the idea sponsored by "the Islamic world's respected leader,
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah" of how to "unify and
strengthen the crisis-riven Muslim world".
The real nitty-gritty - off limits to everyone - was what the Saudis, the
Iranians and the Turks actually discussed behind those Mecca doors after the
heart-warming-voiced muezzin went to bed.
For show, the Mecca notables passed three resolutions. They suspended Syria;
recognized Palestine as a sovereign state (once again, note that Palestine was
treated as just a side issue); and defended the cause of the Rohingya Muslims
in Myanmar (the military in Naypyidaw are not exactly quaking in their boots).
The Custodian's show
What the "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" seems to have perpetrated is a
savvy, Washington-style PR coup. He was evidently advised to seat Ahmadinejad
to his left and the Emir of Qatar to his right. The graphic message; this
triumvirate - two Sunni Wahhabi powers, one Khomeinist Shi'ite - is deciding
the future of the Middle East. We - Wahhabis - are not bent on destroying those
infidel Shi'ites.
Not so fast. My colleague Kaveh Afrasiabi has argued Tehran may have fallen
into a trap; they were expecting a real effort of mediation and political
dialogue instead of the meeting's priority - to suspend and eventually expel
their ally Syria (See Saudis use summit to isolate Syria, Iran , Asia Times
Online, August 15, 2012).
Behind all the syrupy shenanigans, the fact is the House of Saud and Tehran
didn't - and couldn't - possibly agree on anything; this was more like a "let's
keep talking" - the Mecca version of the good ol' US-USSR red telephone. The
"Custodian" called for "solidarity, tolerance and moderation"; hard to see any
of this as the House of Saud - and Qatar - weaponize runaway gangs and an array
of beheading-happy Salafi-jihadis in Syria.
The OIC as a whole defended Syria's "unity, sovereignty, independence and
territorial integrity", exactly as the House of Saud and Qatar are doing all
they can to undermine all of the above. Here's the OIC as an extension of the
Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (other GCC members being Bahrain, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates). Quite a few countries - from Southeast
Asia to Africa - are very uncomfortable with the whole thing, but in the end
deferred to the "Custodian".
The "Custodian" also wants to set up a "center for dialogue" in Riyadh. The
verdict is open whether this center will examine who's really responsible for
what is now practically all-out war between Sunnis and Shi'ites all across the
Ummah. Imagine a center like this coming to the conclusion that the protests in
Bahrain were legitimate; as legitimate as the protests in the Eastern province
of Saudi Arabia. And as legitimate as what happened last year in Cairo's Tahrir
Square (everyone remembers the House of Saud's sheer horror at its ally Hosni
Mubarak being defied by scores of young urbanites).
The "Custodian" also said, "The Islamic nation is living in a state of sedition
and disunity that led to bloodshed of its people in this holy month in many
parts of our Islamic world."
On sedition - fitna, in Arabic - it's unthinkable the "Custodian" and his
pampered House of Saud princes are not familiar with the Yinon plan [1] and
countless others, whose divide-and-rule basis is exactly to incite a
never-ending Sunni-Shi'ite war, with a cast of subdivisions including Muslims
against Christians, Arabs against Persians, Turks against Persians, Arabs
against Turks and, why not, Kurds against Turks.
That's exactly what is happening as the major - intended or unintended -
blowback of Syria's proxy war.
Why not have it both ways?
So the "Custodian" seems to have sold the notion that Iran and the GCC are
talking - even if practically at each other's throats. But the House of Saud
agenda remains extremely tricky; it may not dream of a smashed Iran, but
certainly a very weakened Iran, either by years of Western sanctions or by a
potential Israeli attack. It's no secret the GCC badly wants Israel to attack
Iran; it then could reap the benefits of inwardly delighting over a weakened
regional Shi'ite power while publicly condemning Israel's unilateral
aggression.
This farce, anyway, is far from over. Up next; Tehran has invited the
"Custodian" for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit later this month. Let's
see whether the House of Saud, the GCC and Iran are really interested in ending
fitna way beyond a photo-op. There's still no evidence the "leaders" of 1.5
billion Muslims will EVER get their act together. Not even Allah himself would
make them see the light.
Notes:
1. A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties, Oded Yinon, 1982.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is
Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot
of Baghdad during the surge. His most recent book is Obama does Globalistan
(Nimble Books, 2009).
He may be reached at [email protected]
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