Cold War basis for US-Saudi ties gone: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Weber, the director of the Institute for Historical Review, about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Now these accusations that the Middle East director for Human Rights Watch is putting forth against Saudi Arabia are nothing new; these have been stated and restated over the past years. However, what do you make of this recent scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record in the mainstream media?

Weber: Well, given the tremendous scale I think...  the vast US military and diplomatic support for Saudi Arabia over the past half century, this new publicity reminds the world once again of the tremendous and embarrassing contrast between the proclaimed supposed ideals and goals of US policy in the Middle East on the one hand, and the grim, shameful reality of American policy in the region, on the other.

Something else is happening I think that’s really important. Given the calamitous record of US intervention in the region over the past 15 years, especially in Afghanistan, Iraq and now in Syria, the public attention that is now being given to the kingdom’s human rights record and the regime’s social political character is prompting more people to call into question in a fundamental way the US alliance with Saudi Arabia itself.

I think the more people know about the real character and policies of Saudi Arabia and its leaders, the more pressure will mount for a thoroughgoing reassessment of US and European policy in the region. Because the reality is that US support for the kingdom is not only contrary to proclaimed American ideals, it is harmful to basic authentic American interests in the region.

Press TV: Right, now, Mr. Weber, as you’ve just mentioned, that the scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record is going to show that difference between... that paradox between what Saudi Arabia stands for and what the US claims its role in the region is for, now, do you think as there is more awareness of that, there will be more resistance to the way the US deals with Saudi Arabia be it billion dollars on contracts or forming alliances against terror in the name of bombing Syria for example?

Weber: The US alliance with Saudi Arabia really grew out of the Cold War period, when the world was more or less divided into blocs supporting or backing or on the side of the United States and the Soviet Union.

The world is very different than it was when the US alliance with Saudi Arabia was put into place. And the premise, the basis for that alliance with Saudi Arabia no longer really exists. There’s no real compelling American interest as there was or might have been in the 50s or 60s or 70s for the US alliance with Saudi Arabia.

So, all of the attention that’s now being given to human rights record and the character of Saudi Arabia is going to put more and more pressure even in the United States to reassess, to recalibrate US policy and support for the kingdom.

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