MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Saudi Arabia has donated $100 million to the UN’s Counter-Terrorism Center, in what represents the largest appropriation to the newly created entity to date. By doing so the House of Saud is supporting their “fundamental survival, their power and rule,” Matthew Jamison, Consultant Fellow at Royal United Services Institute, says in an exclusive interview with Radio VR.
Still, he is sure the step is not enough, since one cannot buy off radicals with money. “You can’t just throw money at it. This is the problem with the South East. The Saudis have indeed a lot of money, which they preserve their power with. Still, they can’t buy off terrorists with money.”
The Gulf state has recently faced serious challenges to their authority, namely from Sunni ISIS, a newly set up political formation. The House of Saud is Sunni as well, the expert notes, but not “as extreme and radical and fundamentalist as these Islamist terrorists.” The ISIS members, now waging full-scale operations in Iraq and Syria, view the House of Saud as “a bunch of corrupt infidels”, engaged in a debate with the West at the expense of true Islamic principles.
The House of Saud is by all means trying to prop itself up, being in a very “precarious situation”, notes Mr. Jamison, citing the new Islamic State spreading further to the south. “That is a massive threat to its legitimacy,” he concludes.
An enormous power vacuum has appeared in Syria as the terrible insurgency has been spreading since 2011, leaving some 200,000 people dead and even more displaced. A mass influx of “every jihadi you can think of” from all around the world has been heading to Syria, which Mr. Jamison labels “a training ground and terrorism center for any Islamic fundamentalists, a real hotbed, magnet of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism”.
This is where crowds of people have been going to gain training and a wealth of experience, “where lots of money and equipment have been thrown into and thrown out of”, he says.
Jamison is sure the effect of this is already there and we are now starting to see the repercussions of allowing the situation in Syria to drag on over the last three years, notably terrorist activity being spilled well over the Syrian, and originally, Saudi borders.
The expert comes up with a broader roadmap on how to halt terrorist activity in the region, saying it is crucial to completely move away from supporting ISIS. He notes the Saudis have had a bargain in a way, as they allow the Wahhabis in the deserts to spread this Islamic fundamentalism, “which al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban have latched onto”. They turned a blind eye to it for fear of losing their power and authority in the region.“They allow it to continue in their own country as long as they are going to stay in power and control the oil flowing and control the foreign policy,” says Mr. Jamison.
“Saudis have to realize that you cannot keep snakes in your garden and think that they’re only going to bite their neighbors. Sooner or later they will bite you as well”.
He feels certain that the only way to stop Islamic fundamentalism from spreading is a democracy in the long run. “They have to drain this swamp, put everything in their house in order”.
The Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, is a Sunni fundamentalist group that has been fighting in Syria and launched an offensive in Iraq in June. The group has taken over large parts of the country, with a goal of seizing Baghdad. The group has also announced the establishment of a caliphate on the Iraq-Syria border.
