Execution of activists to end Al Saud rule: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for the [Persian] Gulf Affairs (IGA) from Washington on the potential repercussions of executing opposition figures in Saudi Arabia.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: We’re looking at over 50 perhaps even more executions that are supposed to take place, among several Shia activists. What kind of consequences do you think this will bring Saudi Arabia, with reports indicating that there might be a Shia revolt against the regime?

Ahmed: I think you’re talking about civil war definitely. I think the Saudi government has done beyond any level of imagination in terms of their brutality. So, I don’t think any other way to respond to such execution, but to go on the same level.

Unfortunately, the international community is letting this happen without raising their voice. The international community, the United States and other countries have no right if this happens to say anything or to object to anything, because, you’re talking about people and the freedom of a nation, and the freedom and dignity of a nation is worth more than anything. So, I believe civil war will ensue. It’s not a revolt. It’s going to be a complete chaos and the Saudi monarchy will cease to exist.

Press TV: And very curious is too, why the international community, in particular the United States, does not see how these acts by Saudi Arabia has actually been exported in the region, and I’m talking about this so-called counter-terrorism law that Saudi Arabia enacted in the kingdom back in 2015, which basically gives the Interior Ministry a free hand to suppress any kind of freedom of expression, something which we’ve seen in Bahrain and something which we’ve seen in Egypt.

Ahmed: Yes, the unfortunate, I think, misguided policy – the American and Western policy- in the region has been extremely misguided and ignorant in many ways, because for them to support the exportation and the propagation of violence, torture and execution, that’s going to hurt these countries. It’s going to hurt the United States, because this is a small world after all. And if they support terror governments, like the Saudi government, to kill its own people, to kill children and to murder activists, this is going to have repercussions on them too.

So, really you’re talking about here this is the kind of war that if it opens, it’s not going to stop. It’s going to continue, pulling the whole region into violence, but at the end it will lead to the demise of this ruling monarchy, the ISIS monarchy, and they will also have to pay a lot of price for such actions.

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