For all the positive aspects of our alliance with Saudi Arabia, there is another side to Saudi Arabia, Senator Chris Murphy said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Friday.
"And it is a side that we can no longer afford to ignore as our fight against Islamic extremism becomes more focused and more complicated," he added, according to theHuffington Post.
Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said the United States does not have a particularly credible long term strategy for the Middle East because of some very uncomfortable truths about the nature of the fight against terrorism and the alliance with Saudi Arabia.
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A handout picture provided by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on December 23, 2015, shows Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz as he salutes the kingdom.[/caption]For decades, oil was the bedrock of the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, two nations that share few common values.
Experts say the oil-based mutual dependency that goes back to the early 1930sis becoming increasingly irrelevant as American oil production is surging and the Saudi leadership is running into trouble.
For its relatively small population and weak military, Saudi Arabia has played a major role in US military interventions in the region, mainly because of its massive purchases of weapons from the United States.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with King Salman (R) on January 23, 2016. (AFP photo)[/caption]The complicated alliance, Sen. Murphy argued, has caused the United States to largely ignore the kingdoms funding for extremist Wahhabi, Salafist teachings.
"Less-well-funded governments can hardly keep up with the tsunami of money behind this export of intolerance," the senator said.
Relations with Saudi Arabia have become more complicated since the United States and five other countries, known as P5+1, clenched a historic nuclear agreement with Iran in July, creating the perception that Riyadh might gradually be sidelined in the region.
"In the wake of the Iran nuclear agreement, there are many in Congress who would have the United States double down in our support for the Saudi side of this fight in places like Yemen and Syria, simply because Saudi Arabia is our named friend, and Iran is our named enemy, Murphy said in his speech.
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A Yemeni man inspects damaged buildings following a Saudi-led airstrike in the center of the capital, Sanaa, on January 29, 2016. (AFP photo)[/caption]Since the Iran deal, Washington has approved several arms sales to Riyadh, worth billions of dollars, and continued to support the regimes military assault in Yemen, which has claimed more than 8,000 lives.
Sen. Murphy argued that backing Saudi Arabia as a knee-jerk reaction rather than a calculated strategy is unsustainable in the long run.
The Middle East doesnt work like that anymore, he said. There is growing evidence our support for Saudi-led military campaigns in places like Yemen are prolonging humanitarian misery and aiding extremism.
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A portrait of the late prominent Shia Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr is seen hanging on an electricity pole in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on January 7, 2016. (AFP photo)[/caption]The recent execution of 47 people, including prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, in a style that most Americans associate with Daesh (ISIL) rather than a close US ally--many of them were beheaded by a sword--, has made it increasingly difficult for the White House to explain its relationship with the Saudi kingdom.
By Press TV
