Jordanian Analyst: Persian Gulf Arab States Main Losers of Syria War

“The Sheikhdoms in the coastal areas of the Persian Gulf are the biggest losers of war in Syria since they spent billions of dollars for the war and after that for the ‘Decisive Storm’ operations in Yemen and finally, their negative impacts were seen in the economies and budgets of these countries, specially Saudi Arabia,” Michael Hanna, a senior fellow at Arab-American Dialogue Center in Washington, told FNA on Sunday.

He, meantime, said that Turkey has gained a lot during the war in Syria through the closure of the Syrian plants which were its rivals once and receiving huge amounts of money for opening its borders to the Arab states’ arms cargos and militants to further reinvigorate the terrorist groups in Syria.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are both part of an effort to create an alleged “Islam Army,” ostensibly aimed at combating terrorism in the region and consisting of 34 Sunni Islam nations.

Almost the entire range of extremist and terrorist groups are supported by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, with their key commanders and leaders being Saudi nationals. ISIL, Al-Nusra and other extremist groups pursue the same line of ideology exercised and promoted by Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism. Hundreds of Saudi clerics are among the ranks of ISIL and Al-Nusra to mentor the militants.

Wahhabism is now the only source of the textbooks taught at schools in the self-declared capital of the ISIL terrorist group, Raqqa, in Northeastern Syria resembling the texts and lessons taught to schoolgoers in Saudi Arabia. The Wahhabi ideology, an extremist version of Sunni Islam that is promoted almost only in Saudi Arabia, sees all other faiths – from other interpretations of Sunni Islam to Shiism, Christianity and Judaism – as blasphemy, meaning that their followers should be decapitated as nonbelievers.