Sukant Chandan, a London-based political analyst, has joined Press TV�s Debate to discuss the role of Saudi Arabia in the regional affairs.
What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV:�Mr. Chandan, would you also say that the problem that Saudi Arabia had with the Muslim Brotherhood, as was our guest Mr. Weitz describing it, would you agree with that? And would you say that that is why Saudi Arabia is supporting the military-backed government or is this more about not just supporting the military or the interim government but creating chaos or bloodshed in Egypt?

Chandan:�I agree that Saudi Arabia has a problem with the Muslim Brotherhood because the Muslim Brotherhood in recent history has been primarily backed and promoted, financed, etc. for regime change operations that has benefited the Western countries in the region and also Saudi Arabia is paranoid that this may negatively impact itself so really, I think that we have to analyze a bit more deeply the contradictions between the Persian Gulf monarchies themselves and how that plays out in the consequences in the region.

We also have to remember that the Ikhwan, the Muslim Brotherhood, has been the main political force, which NATO has used and which Ikhwan has allowed themselves to be used for regime change in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Libya, the attempt in Syria and elsewhere as well and it may not be a surprise to anyone to see in the coming future a Muslim Brotherhood regime being put into place in Jordan, that is conducive to Western interest.

So really I think that it is these contradictions that are playing out but with Egypt specifically one thing has to be remembered, I think, when we discuss Egyptian affairs of the last several years; it is literally days after the departure of President Mubarak, it was the Egyptian army that allowed through..., for the first time historically, I think, at least for a couple of decades, an Iranian warship through the Suez canal, which was a clear message to the West that you have got rid of our leading man, i.e. Mubarak, do not think that you can push us around, the army, and if you do we have, as an option to us to ally with the Global South and Iran in the region.

It was not Morsi or the Muslim Brotherhood that allowed the Iranian warships through, it was the Egyptian army and I think what the power play that it is going on with Egypt is that the West is absolutely, profoundly nervous that the Egyptian army does not say, you know, back off to the West and we are allying with Russia, China and Iran in the region.

So basically Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and Bahrain pumping billions of dollars into Egypt is as much saying that do not go to the Iranians, do not go to the Russians, stay in our orbit and that is a similar dynamic that has been played between Western relations and the Egyptian army as well.

Press TV:�Mr. Chandan a lot of people have been saying that Morsi did not pose a challenge or the Muslim Brotherhood did not pose a challenge to Washington and Tel Aviv and in fact in some respects it was actually going in line with their policies in the region.

So did Morsi or the Muslim Brotherhood cross a certain redline that led to this or should we just assume that it is Saudi Arabia or the UAE, etc. that wanted the Muslim Brotherhood out and actually the United States� role has been sidelined here?

Chandan:�I think that it is absolute misnomer for people to suggest that the former President Morsi was leaning in any way whatsoever to Iran. That is just not the case because if you remember Mr. Morsi�s visit to Tehran, which was not a diplomatic visit to Iran itself, it was as the representative of Egypt to the Non-Aligned summit in Tehran and remember the speech of Morsi in Iran, which was just rabidly anti-Syrian, which was rabidly pro-regime change in Syria and obviously the attack on the Syrian Arab Republic is an indirect attack on the Lebanese Hezbollah and Particularly the Iranian Islamic Republic.

So there is no sense whatsoever that Morsi was leaning to Iran. Quite the opposite, it was playing the vanguard counterrevolutionary role in the region at the behest and in the interest, primarily, of NATO, internally Morsi was willing to sell billions of dollars of subsidies that was helping the poor especially on gas and food, getting rid of that and get the IMF loan instead.

So internally, regionally, internationally Morsi was playing the role of a tool for the Western interests. So really, I think, this is clearly the dynamic that is being played out but what the redline that crossed in actual fact, to answer directly the second part of your question, was that the Egyptian people got absolutely fed up to the back of their teeth with the Muslim Brotherhood who brought nothing but division, privatization and pro-Western strategic interests into the Egyptian body, politics, strategically much more than even Mubarak himself.

Egyptian people are fed up with this� Speak to the Egyptians and most of them do not support the Brotherhood and most of them support the army crackdown on the Brotherhood because Egyptians are fed up and they want to move forward and these are perhaps some of the unfortunate and uncomfortable facts that we are seeing in Egypt.

Press TV:�Mr. Chandan, there are those who are saying that it is a fact that is known now, Saudi Arabia is financing, it is equipping the Takfiri groups, extremists, that are active now in Syria and that it does have that policy of creating regional chaos and regional bloodshed.

What do you think about its role, basically, in the region; we know in Yemen now, in Libya, in Syria, in Bahrain.

Chandan:�Absolutely Saudi Arabia is playing this role but the Saudi regime also knows the dangers that it is playing with fire in conducting this role in the region� and I think is quite an important point, unlike many of the other Persian Gulf monarchies, Saudi Arabia has a sizeable native population, it has a major minority which it has some dissention from; that is the Shia population in Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf monarchies do not have these type of factors to consider when governing their little British-made, actually historically, statelets just as Saudi Arabia is and your last comment was correct in that regard but Saudi Arabia does fear its own internal situation, not that I have any sympathy for regime, I do not but that is why they are trying to export dissention from Saudi Arabia across the region and in so doing trying to achieve their strategic interests there.
Also another very important role that Saudi Arabia plays for the West is that Saudi role for good or for bad, I will take it for bad, is, basically, the defender of Islam and promoter of their version of Islam which I particularly do not consider Islam but nevertheless they promote a certain version of Islam, which is deeply sectarian, which is deeply conservative and that again fits the interests of the West and they do this throughout the world including in the West.
So if you come into England many of the mosques, if not the majority of which, are actually run by the Saudi institutions which is causing problems in our communities.

Press TV:�Mr. Chandan something that I referred to at the start of the program was the visit by Mr. Bandar Sultan to Russia, the report saying that he went there with some intentions in mind. Just your initial reaction to that.

What do you think that was about? Was it about reversal of Russian policies and the continuation of Saudi Agenda?

Chandan:�It is my conjecture but just try to and attempting and connecting the dots in that move in relation to Putin in Russia and the move now in relation to the Egyptian army; what we have is Saudi Arabian regime which they must have had a green light from Britain, from London and Washington in so doing, going to Moscow and frankly this is open political bribery at least an attempt to try and remove Russia�s alliance with the Syrian Arab Republic, it failed because Putin is not a fool, he is one of the wisest� leaders of the Global South against NATO that we have in the world today but similarly they are trying to buy political clout in Egypt so really we can see how Saudi Arabia is maneuvering with its money but do we think China and Russia and Iran does not have similar billions to offer Egypt as well? Of course they do.

So this is the great game that is going on. It is who is going to be able to maintain the alliance with the Egyptian army because basically it is three decades plus of the linchpin of the Western foreign policy in the region which is the US-brokered peace treaty with Egypt and the Zionist white settler state which is under threat because if they lose SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces), if the West loses that alliance with SCAF everything is turned upside down and really we have a big fire on our hands between the liberation forces, which Egypt will join in the Iranian Axis against NATO and Zionist interest in the region.
So really I think what we clearly are seeing in the coming months and years is an intensification of the contradiction and antagonism between the Western and Zionist interests with the Egyptian army. Despite all the verbiage in the media there is a real antagonism going on.
They are going to push SCAF more and more and why? Because the Egyptian army is the biggest army in Africa, it is the biggest army in the Arab World and if the West cannot have strategic control of these countries, they are not going to allow Russia and China to have developing alliances and� it is a scorched earth policy which is put into operation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, which they are attempting to do in Syria and unfortunately more of our countries are going to suffer this.

By Press TV

 

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