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Saudis use terror raids to play victim role: Analyst

A car bomb explosion in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, leaves at least one dead and two others injured, July 16, 2015.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ali al-Ahmed, the director of the Institute for (Persian) Gulf Affairs from Washington, about a car bomb explosion in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, leaving at least one person dead and two policemen injured.

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Is this a sign essentially that the Kingdom is becoming more unstable?

Ahmed: Yes, it is becoming more unstable because if you look at the leading country in terms of supporting or support to ISIS, Saudi Arabia is number one natural haven for ISIS. So we are seeing increasing uptick in terrorism and not only this attack today but also we have online threats of people wearing suicide vests and saying that they will bomb Shia mosques in the Eastern Province tomorrow and we have several posts.

So you are seeing really a get-together between ISIS terrorists and the Saudi government policy that encourages violence against non-Saudi adherence including Shia and other Muslims, of course non-Muslim communities as well. So you are seeing an increasing problem in that country with terrorism. 

Press TV: For all this time obviously the Saudis, the elites at least have been living in relative safety. So will this not then put pressure on the kingdom and the royals to act differently then when it comes to their foreign policy?

Ahmed: I have not seen that in the past. In fact the Saudi government – and that is my contention- that they are encouraging this act of violence. They are doing it because they get to sell this narrative to the world that Saudi Arabia is a victim of terrorism, the Saudi government is a target of terrorism rather than the real fact that the government of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi regime supports terrorism across the globe.

So if there was few attacks here and there really it uses those attacks, usually the victims are either Shia or average policemen or citizens, the Saudi government uses these attacks to shield itself from the accusations that it does support terrorism in Yemen, in Iraq, in Syria and other countries.  

Press TV: But then do you think that the Saudis are buying that argument to themselves, not of course the elites but the average Saudis?

Ahmed: The average Saudis know the fact that the Saudi government is creating the ground, they are supporting the terrorist ideology it is in the Saudi school books, in the mosques, in the Saudi government mosques and it is in the Saudi government media which does control all the media.

So the average citizen knows this. The problem is that you have Western narrative that also supports that the Saudi government is a target of terrorism, the Saudi government is fighting terrorism. The fact is Saudi Arabia is benefiting from terrorism because it uses that terrorism against its opponents and it uses the international community to give itself a victim status.


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