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Saudis single-handedly responsible for spreading terror: Analyst

Saturday, 06 February 2016 7:10 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 06 February 2016 7:21 AM ]

Saudi Arabian Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf delivers a pledge during a donor conference entitled ‘Supporting Syria & The Region’ in London on February 4, 2016. ©AFP

Press TV has interviewed Catherine Shakdam, the programs director of Shafaqna Institute for Middle East Studies from London, and Lawrence Korb, a former assistant to US secretary of defense from Washington, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s plan for troop deployment to Syria.

Shakdam says the Damascus government is the “only legitimate authority in Syria” and any intervention into the country without the approval of the incumbent authorities would be illegal.

The analyst adds that Saudi Arabia is following the United States’ method of violating the sovereignty of other countries.

“Saudi Arabia is single-handedly responsible for spreading terrorism” across the Middle East, says Shakdam, adding that the Riyadh regime expresses readiness to join the anti-Daesh fight, while it shares the same Wahhabi ideology with the terror group and promotes its presence in Syria and Iraq.

Shakdam voices concern over the Saudi plan to commit troops to Syria as part of a potential ground intervention by the US-led alliance in the Arab country, saying certain Western powers and their regional allies, including Riyadh, are part of the problem in the region.

She further censures the United States for turning a blind eye to the Wahhabi ideology as the main source of Takfirism, saying security threats in the Middle East could not be countered if the spread of Wahhabism was not firmly addressed.

Korb, for his part, believes Saudi Arabia’s plan to dispatch ground forces to Syria is “part of a coalition,” and the Saudis are not going to enter the war-torn Arab country by themselves.

He says the spread of terrorism has nothing to do with Wahhabism, but the problem comes from the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which has prompted some individuals such as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ring-leader of Daesh, to become radicalized in American jails in the Arab country.

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