Looks like President Obama’s bow to the king of Saudi Arabia only convinced the former that the latter considers himself subservient. Because now the King has issued orders to the President.
The London Times reports:
Saudi Arabia has threatened to prop up President Mubarak if the White House tries to force a swift change of regime in Egypt.
In a testy personal telephone call on January 29, King Abdullah told President Obama not to humiliate Mr Mubarak and warned that he would step in to bankroll Egypt if the US withdrew its aid programme, worth $1.5 billion annually.
America’s closest ally in the Gulf made clear that the Egyptian President must be allowed to stay on to oversee the transition towards peaceful democracy and then leave with dignity.
“Mubarak and King Abdullah are not just allies, they are close friends, and the King is not about to see his friend cast aside and humiliated,” a senior source in the Saudi capital told The Times.
Two sources confirmed details of the King’s call, made four days after the people of Egypt took to the streets. The revelation of Saudi concerns sheds new light on America’s apparent diplomatic paralysis and lays bare the biggest rift between the nations since the oil price shock of 1973…
“With Egypt in chaos, the kingdom is Washington’s only major ally left in the Arab world and the Saudis want the Americans to remember that,” said a source in Riyadh.
Well, that’s where the Saudis are wrong. They apparently haven’t heard about President Obama’s magnificent Cairo speech. You know, the one that convinced everyone in the Muslim world to love us. From what we hear it was very effective and we are universally adored in the region.
So put that in your hookah and smoke it, Abdullah.
Source: Times of London
This post was last modified on February 10, 2011
View Comments (20)
All the money they make from selling us oil, and we send them 15 billion a year? Am I the only one that sees a problem with this?
I think it is "only" one and a half billion dollars, but five cents is too much.
I wonder how much we "aid" we give to Saudia Arabia and China?
Deb
Thanks for the correction. Darn spell check changed it and I let it go.
So Mubarek DID step down. Does that mean the soon to die (87?) Abdullah will pick up the financial slack and we can keep our foreign aid money? There are billions of dollars in Swiss accounts for Mubarak that have been frozen-returning them to Egypt would be a nice little nest egg. Maybe they could even pay back some of that to America, since that is mostly where it came from. And what a great use it was put to! (gag)
Bow.....Wow.Wow!
This is exactly what happens when the occupant of the oval office is weak. He has been slapped right in the face and he has no idea in which manner to deal with them. His bowing down to them was what they wanted to see. The Saudis knew right then and there he was a weak ruler who they could push around.obama sold out Mubarak in an attempt to appease the masses. Now he has the Muslim Brotherhood lurking in the shadows just waiting to take control of Egypt. If Egypt falls to the radicals, Israel will not wait long before striking setting off a global war all courtesy of barry the weak leaning obama. Neville Chamberlain could not be prouder.
At least British Intelligence is in the game and not hamstrung by an inept dumb ass ruler.
One has to admit, however, that Neville Chamberlain was a pretty good singer. Wait. . .you mean that was Aaron Neville? Never mind. Carry on , good citizen.
A great article on this with more insight, from Debka yesterday:
Deep US-Saudi rift over Egypt: Abdullah stands by Mubarak, turns to Tehran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 10, 2011, 4:31 PM (GMT+02:00)
The conversation between President Barack Obama and Saudi King Abdullah early Thursday, Feb. 10, was the most acerbic the US president has ever had with an Arab ruler, debkafile's Middle East sources report. They had a serious falling-out on the Egyptian crisis which so enraged the king that some US and Middle East sources reported he suffered a sudden heart attack. Rumors that he had died rocked the world financial and oil markets that morning and were denied by an adviser to the ruling family. Some Gulf sources say he has had heart attacks in the past.
Those sources disclose that the call which Obama put into Abdullah, who is recuperating from back surgery at his palace in Morocco, brought their relations into deep crisis and placed in jeopardythe entire edifice of US Iran and Middle East policies.
The king chastised the president for his treatment of Egypt and its president Hosni Muhbarak calling it a disaster that would generate instability in the region and imperil all the moderate Arab rulers and regimes which had backed the United States until now. Abdullah took Obama to task for ditching America's most faithful ally in the Arab world and vowed that if the US continues to try and get rid of Mubarak, the Saudi royal family would bend all its resources to undoing Washington's plans for Egypt and nullifying their consequences.
According to British intelligence sources in London, the Saudi King pledged to make up the losses to Egypt if Washington cuts off military and economic aid to force Mubarak to resign. He would personally instruct the Saudi treasury to transfer to the embattled Egyptian ruler the exact amounts he needs for himself and his army to stand up to American pressure.
Through all the ups and downs of Saudi-US relations since the 1950s no Saudi ruler has ever threatened direct action against American policy.
A senior Saudi source told the London Times that "Mubarak and King Abdullah are not just allies, they are close friends, and the King is not about to see his friend cast aside and humiliated."
Indeed, our sources add, the king at the age of 87 is fearful that in the event of a situation developing in Saudi Arabia like the uprising in Egypt, Washington would dump him just like Mubarak.
debkafile's intelligence sources add that replacement aid for Egypt was not the only card in Abdullah's deck. He informed Obama that without waiting for events in Egypt to play out or America's response, he had ordered the process set in train for raising the level of Riyadh's diplomatic and military ties with Tehran. Invitations had gone out from Riyadh for Iranian delegations to visit the main Saudi cities.
Abdullah stressed he had more than one bone to pick with Obama. The king accused the US president of turning his back not only on Mubarak but on another beleaguered American ally, the former Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri, when he was toppled by Iran's surrogate Hizballah.
Our sources in Washington report that all of President Obama's efforts to pacify the Saudi king and explain his Egyptian policy fell on deaf ears.
Arab sources in London reported Tuesday, Feb. 8, that a special US presidential emissary was dispatched to Morocco with a message of explanation for the king. He was turned away. This is not confirmed by US or Saudi sources.
The initiation of dialogue between Riyadh and Tehran is the most dramatic fallout in the region from the crisis in Egypt. Its is a boon for the ayatollahs who are treated the sight of pro-Western regimes either fading under the weight of domestic uprisings, or turning away from the US as Saudi Arabia is doing now.
This development is also of pivotal importance for Israel. Saudi Arabia's close friendship with the Mubarak regime dovetailed neatly with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's alignment with Egypt and provided them with common policy denominators. The opening of the Saudi door to the Iranian push toward the Red Sea and Suez Canal tightens the Iranian siege ring around Israel.
Signs of friction between Washington and Riyadh were noticeable this week even before President Obama's call to King Abdullah. Some American media reported the discovery that Saudi oil reserves were a lot smaller than previously estimated. And Saudi media ran big headlines, most untypically, alleging the US embassy and consulate in Dahran were paying sub-contractors starvation wages of $4.3 a day for cleaning work and $3.3 a day for gardening work.
http://www.debka.com/article/20650/
What are the odds that we will see any of this news in the LSM? If so, the spin will be hilarious. I'll help them. "Bush policies finally push Saudi's over the edge" AP Despite the magnificent tireless efforts of the great President Barrack Hurrah Obama, the Saudi government thumbed their nose at the US and it is all George Bush's fault.
Nice find.
The question was never is Obama a muslim, it was is he sunni or shia. This puts that to rest. Obama is a shia muslim.
His muslim masters have spoken and sent down the sharia law to their puppet boy. He will cal towel to the robe wearing non bathing bunch so he can be in their graces. Cowardly scum bag.
Barry get your “nuts” out of Michelle’s purse and put them in and deal with the mess that you have created before it’s to late.
lol... I thought it was a play on words about kowtowing to a man who wears a towel on his head. The spelling is kowtow http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kowtow it is also kotow.
That is not a "towel" KQ, it is a sheet! To be politically correct we cannot call them "towel heads", we have to refer to them as "sheet heads" instead! Get with the program young lady or the politically correct police will be looking at you!!
Ah-ha "sheet" heads ha!
I'm sorry but can you clarify the meaning of 'cal towel' for me? Not familiar with that one.
Its actually Kao Tow. Definition is correct.
I thought it was Cow Tao.
DeanH
Sure, it means to be subservant or bow down to.
I really hope this doesn't upset NASA's Muslim outreach program.
Awesome throwback!