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KSA drives, funds terrorist attacks in Iraq, Syria: Z. al-Isa

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Press TV has conducted an interview with Zayd al-Isa, a Middle East expert from London, about militants’ confessions and evidence showing Saudi Arabia funding terrorist operations in Iraq and Syria.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: In what position does this message by these insurgents put Saudi Arabia?

al-Isa: It’s pretty damning evidence because it comes from the horses mouth. What we have are confessions made by members who have carried out heinous crimes and have been caught red-handed in the action of actually murdering and carrying out suicide bombings in Iraq.

But let me just make one point very clear… there is a huge body of evidence that points the finger directly at Saudi Arabia. The Saudi regime has its fingerprints all over these operations since 2003.

This was confirmed by the NBC, which clearly stated that more than 50 percent of the suicide bombers and foreign fighters that have carried out such heinous crimes came directly from Saudi Arabia.

And the Saudis have turned a blind eye or encouraged such attacks in Iraq in order to destabilize, discredit and derail the fledgling democracy with the ultimate goal of actually dismantling the fledgling democracy in Iraq because they perceive the democratic process and democratic involvement of the Iraqi people as an existential and a major threat because they want to convince their people that democracy and elections will lead ultimately to insecurity, instability and ultimately to civil war.

That’s why when we see an intensification and escalation of violence in Iraq… and that has even been acknowledged by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who said Jabhat al-Nusra is actually part and parcel of al-Qaeda in Iraq. And that is when the New York Times clearly emphasized that most of the arming, the funding, logistical support; and actually salaries being paid in unprecedented step to mercenaries and Wahabi Salafist insurgents turning up and converging on Syria.

So, all of that money, funding that went to Jabhat al-Nusra has found its way to al-Qaeda in Iraq and Abu Bakr was very clear about saying that all the resources are shared between the two terrorist groups.

The Saudis are desperate now to prove to their people that they are the guardians and defenders of the Sunni camp particularly after this blatantly deceitful mishap falling apart in the eyes of the majority of the people who have seen their regime backing up, standing behind emphatic support, behind tyrannical dictatorships in Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia that is in direct opposition to the Sunni people and those countries who have vehemently opposed tyrannical regimes.

Let’s not forget that the Saudi regime actually adheres to the Wahabi Salafist ideology and the illegitimacy that the regime comes from the religious Wahabi Salafist radicals – a religious establishment, which actually has issued all the fatwas; they emanate from Saudi Arabia and those fatwas are absolutely vital for al-Qaeda… and also rely heavily on the funding, arming, logistical support that comes from Saudi Arabia.

Even the American fatwas, Clinton has said absolutely clearly, which was revealed in Wikileaks, the most critical financial support base that al-Qaeda relies upon is actually Saudi Arabia – that’s where most of the funding comes from and even stated that there has been an absolute uphill struggle to convince the Saudis to actually deal in a serious way with that major threat coming from all this financing.

Let’s also remember that Saudi Arabia has actually widened its strategies; it simply has focused on Syria believing that if it topples the Syrian regime then simply Iraq will fall apart. But that hasn’t happened, it has failed in its strategy towards Syria and that’s why now it’s re-shifting and widening its strategy to actually focus on destabilizing Iraq believing that if Iraq is dramatically weakened then it can actually make some progress in toppling and ousting the Syrian regime and it has so far failed miserably.

One other important factor is also that Saudi Arabia has failed in pushing the United States in adopting military action against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Saudis have pushed very hard and fought very hard for the Americans not to negotiate with Iran with respect to its peaceful nuclear program.

The Saudis wanted military strikes and that was absolutely clear in anything between Saudi foreign minister and [Hillary] Clinton where they have thought that sanctions are absolutely not enough, they are woefully inadequate and what is needed is a short term solution.

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