Saudi donors most signifcant source of terrorism funding in Pakistan

[FaujHistorian]

I think it's laughable. I did respond to similar topics over and over again, and as they lack any official documentation, I don't think these articles are true.

Pakistani marxists tend to post wierd stuff about Saudi Arabia

Glad you ignore them.


KSA has 27-30 million population

Pakistan has almost 190-200 million

If marxists accuse KSA for doing bad things to Pakistan

then they are simply ignorant of relative size of the countries and thus the respective ability to do bad stuff


It is time Pakistanis take responsibility for their own country rather than accusing others.

 

[jaunty]

KSA gov doesn't fund terrorism. If you know it then you are baiting, if you don't know, then learn first instead of flaming

It doesn't matter, the news is still related to KSA. I just wanted to know their opinion. I'd appreciate if you hold back your judgement.

I think it's laughable. I did respond to similar topics over and over again, and as they lack any official documentation, I don't think these articles are true.

Of course it depends on how much you are willing to trust these diplomatic cables, sometimes it is convenient to brush them off.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

if we decide to finally bring all our misgivings in the open then we should be ready for two kinds of reprisals.

harassment and expulsion of ex-pat Pakistanis from the kingdom with their assets confiscated , beaten, humiliated and helpless just like they and their brother regimes in UAE have done to hundreds of thousands of Muslims of a "deviant sect".. these vacancies will be eagerly filled by Indians and Bangladeshis who will happily accept slaps and spit on their faces & will thank the Saudis for the honour. Saudis make such videos just to remind the people of sub continent where they place us in the social order.


Also we must be ready for difficulties, humiliations and harassments during Hajj times.. we will get the taster of what Iranians have been suffering (I am not making a moral debate of who is right or wrong because I know some arseholes will start spitting blood in this forum).


for now just execute all taliban/ sectarian prisoners and treat them as enemy of state and who is in the state of war with Pakistan so the Chudray Iftikhar's ( pay he die a miserable death) judiciary cant touch them or save them

Sounds good to me.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

DAWN

KARACHI: A US official in a cable sent to the State Department stated that “financial support estimated at nearly 100 million USD annually was making its way to Deobandi and Ahl-i-Hadith/Wahabi clerics in south Punjab from organisations in Saudi Arabia ostensibly with the direct support of that government.”

The cable sent in November 2008 by Bryan Hunt, the then Principal Officer at the US Consulate in Lahore, was based on information from discussions with local government and non-governmental sources during his trips to the cities of Multan and Bahawalpur.

Quoting local interlocutors, Hunt attempts to explain how the “sophisticated jihadi recruitment network” operated in a region dominated by the Barelvi sect, which, according to the cable, made south Punjab “traditionally hostile” to Deobandi and Ahl-i-Hadith/Wahabi schools of thought.

Hunt refers to a “network of Deobandi and Ahl-i-Hadith/Wahabi mosques and madrassahs” being strengthened through an influx of “charity” which originally reached organisations “such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Al-Khidmat foundation”. Portions of these funds would then be given away to clerics “in order to expand these sects’ presence” in a relatively inhospitable yet “potentially fruitful recruiting ground”.

Outlining the process of recruitment for militancy, the cable describes how “families with multiple children” and “severe financial difficulties” were generally being exploited for recruitment purposes. Families first approached by “ostensibly ‘charitable’” organisations would later be introduced to a “local Deobandi or Ahl-i-Hadith/Wahabi maulana” who would offer to educate the children at his madrassah and “find them employment in the service of Islam”. “Martyrdom” was also “often discussed”, with a final cash payment to the parents. “Local sources claim that the current average rate is approximately Rs 500,000 (approximately USD 6,500) per son,” the cable states.

Children recruited would be given age-specific indoctrination and would eventually be trained according to the madrassah teachers’ assessment of their inclination “to engage in violence and acceptance of jihadi culture” versus their value as promoters of Deobandi or Ahl-i-Hadith/Wahabi sects or recruiters, the cable states.

Recruits “chosen for jihad” would then be taken to “more sophisticated indoctrination camps”. “Locals identified three centres reportedly used for this purpose”. Two of the centres were stated to be in the Bahawalpur district, whereas one was reported as situated “on the outskirts of Dera Ghazi Khan city”. These centres “were primarily used for indoctrination”, after which “youths were generally sent on to more established training camps in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and then on to jihad either in FATA, NWFP, or as suicide bombers in settled areas”.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

TTP - From Deobandi links to Salafi influence

DAWN

TEHREEK-i-Taliban Pakistan, which was formed as an umbrella organisation for more than two dozen militant outfits in December 2007, in South Waziristan has since evolved considerably from its roots.

From the very start, Salafi and Saudi Arabian influence was visible, but initially it was restricted to funding. The slain commander of TTP Baitullah Meshud once admitted in an interview that Arabs and Al Qaeda provided the initial funds for forming the TTP.

No wonder then that within two years of its formation, Arab groups with links with Al Qaeda were given representation in the central council of TTP. Experts say this was the first instance of direct Salafi influence on the decision-making process within TTP.

The Deobandi link was there too – many of its foot soldiers and some of its leaders come from Deobandi madressahs.

But this Deobandi side of the TTP identity got diluted with time especially as banned militant and sectarian organisations which had been shifting their operations from mainland Pakistan to the tribal areas began making inroads into the TTP.

Among these were splinter groups of Laskhar-i-Taiba (a Salafi organisation), ‘rogue’ and radicalised elements of the Jamaat-i-Islami and other militant organisations who now dominate Tehreek-i-Taliban’s decision-making process.

Sectarian militant organisations such as Sipaha-i-Sahaba Pakistan, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Harkatul Jihad-i-Islami are now part of Pakistan Taliban’s organisational set-up and now take active part in the Taliban-led terrorist attacks on the urban centres and government installations and personnel.

Hence, apart from the TTP head Hakimullah, Hafiz Gul Buhadar and the late Maulvi Nazir (the latter two groups have loose agreements with the Pakistani army) there are at least 10 other groups that have their own strongholds in Fata such as Maulvi Faqir Mohammed of Bajaur who has been expelled from TTP.

These 10 groups include the main leadership of the “Punjabi Taliban” that is based in NW. Asmatullah Muavia is the main leader of the Punjabi Taliban.

Other groups that are perhaps not so high profile but continue to operate from the tribal areas and enjoy influence with the TTP include the Rasheed Ghazi force and Jundullah. These groups are focused on carrying out attacks inside Pakistan as well.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

thats it dear

whats the point criticizing our friends and brothers and enemies etc when we cant stop their funding and support in our country?
it is the job of our banking sector and financial authorities to seize such funds and confiscate them. our law enforcement agencies must capture the terrorists and our legal system should punish the terrorists and our home office or interior ministry must expel such diplomats who go beyond their stated job.

Saudis are funding LeJ and TTP in addition to JUI and Jamat Islami but they are far more overt in Syria and I pray that before that day comes when they are openly hosting cannibals, rapists and butchers and justifying the fall of Pakistani state, our forces are able to cripple the back of LeJ and TTP. we cant stop Saudis unfortunately we got no say in the matter and they got their foot on over necks and what they are doing globally is like a religion for them, if they dont keep feeding these snakes and scorpions then these beasts will come back to the roost so its better that all the carnage and blood spilled from wahabi/salafi literature and oil money is well out side Saudi Arabia.

this issue bring us another point, are our security services and state institutions complicit in this wahabi funding of terror that has resulted in the death of over 50,000 people? I cant see them totally innocent.

the day all religious organisations are banned their assets seized and all religious and sectarian terrorists executed .. you will see that Saudis will stop funding a lost cause and look for other countries to continue their experiments.

Apparently Army Chief is paying Saudi a visit. I'd be curious to know the intent of the trip. It is time we bluntly told the Saudis to shut down the funding channels for the TTP currently being run by their Salafi backers in Saudi.

Perhaps the military chief will explain to the Saudis the painful consequences awaiting the Salafi-inspired TTP thugs and its sympathizers in Pakistan in the not too distant future.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Middle East Forum

A History of Violence

Contrary to prevalent Western beliefs, Wahhabism is not an old Islamic tradition and the House of Saud does not enjoy a credible historic claim to rule over Arabia. Indeed, Wahhabism emerged only 250 years ago under the guidance of an obscure fanatic known as Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab who later formed an alliance with a group of desert bandits, the Sauds. From the time they established their covenant to the creation of the modern Saudi state, the Saudi-Wahhabi movement spread across the peninsula brutally defeating and enslaving non-Wahhabi Muslims.

A substantial body of nineteenth century scholarship does exist to confirm the bloody rise of the Saudi-Wahhabi state. Thomas Hope, a British author, wrote extensively about the Wahhabi spread from his travels throughout the Middle East. In his novel Anastasius, he described Wahhabi agents in words that will be strikingly familiar to modern readers: as extremist puritans bent on dominating the Muslim world by adopting tactics reminiscent of Al-Qaeda's calculated savagery.

The theological and political pact between the Saud clan and the Wahhabists resulted in the fall of Mecca for the second and last time in 1924, solidifying their grip on power. After the conquest of Mecca, the vast oil wealth of the kingdom would be used to export a radical Wahhabist ideology across the globe.

Nerve Center of Islamic Extremism

From time to time, the Saudi elite attempts to confuse Western opinion by claiming that it too is the target of Islamic terror, a rather hollow gesture to hide its complicity in terrorism. Saudi Arabia, being a police state, the monarchy long ago could have ridded itself of extremist elements. But the sobering reality is that international terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda are directly impelled by Saudi clerics. To recover their credibility in the eyes of more reactionary factions after years of excess, the Saudi family has embarked on an ambitious global campaign to support incubators of violence and extremism from Algeria, Libya to the Philippines. In sum, Al-Qaeda would not exist absent Saudi money and membership.

False Arguments

The world needs to end its delusion that the Saudi royal family is a moderating force within Saudi politics when the reality is that it has produced a well-funded launch pad for a fascist ideology. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of Saudi apologists. The so-called specialists and academics continue to argue that Islamic terror is the consequence of Islam enduring Western humiliation. But in fact, Saudi Arabia has never been subjugated by the West, instead it has only been cuddled and bribed to ridiculous extremes.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Lee Jay Walker - MTT

Al-Qaeda affiliates and a plethora of Sunni Islamic jihadist movements in Syria are highlighting the ultra-reactionary reality that exists wherever jihadists are based because of sinister forces throughout the Gulf region. In the Gulf you have certain families and individuals with enormous wealth and who purchase the most expensive things that you can find on this planet. At the same time, these feudal Gulf elites states (primarily Saudi Arabia) seek to preserve their feudal power bases at all costs. Therefore, Saudi petrodollars are investing heavily on spreading Salafi Islam; supporting reactionary Takfiri clerics who spread sectarianism based on their anti-Shia agenda; forcing women into the shadows; and garnering financial support for terrorist movements – and other negative realities.

Of course, it doesn’t concern al-Qaeda affiliates and other Sunni Islamist movements that feudal monarchs spend vast sums on enormous palaces, buy sublime yachts, invest in football clubs, and so forth; no, issues related to social justice doesn’t even enter the equation. Therefore, while Sunni terrorist reactionary forces blight parts of Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and other countries – it is clear that wealthy Gulf monarchs don’t fear a threat to their respective power bases by the very same terrorist groups. Obviously, this isn’t surprising because the main source of funding terrorism and sectarianism in many parts of the world emanates directly from the Gulf region primarily from Saudi Arabia irrespective if state sanctioned; based on Sunni Islamist Salafi organizations; funded by extremely wealthy individuals; ratlines within the banking sector; or based on powerful charities which hide behind slick advertisements based on media propaganda.

In other words, religious militancy in the Gulf is the perfect ticket to spread compliant Salafi and Takfiri Islam based on brainwashing individuals into supporting a monoculture based on “year zero.” These ultra reactionary forces can be manipulated easily by inciting hatred towards “the other” based on rhetoric related to jihad, Sharia and oppressing all moderate forces. Therefore, Kurdish Islamists are killing fellow Kurds; Syrian Islamist sectarians are killing fellow Syrians; Islamists in the Sinai are killing fellow Egyptians; and it goes on and on. This reality highlights the fact that Islamic jihadists are mere fodder for their wealthy Salafi backers, the intrigues of Western powers (CIA and MI6 supported jihadists in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Libya and so forth), the policies of Pakistan and so forth.

In Pakistan this nation helped Islamic jihadists from all over the world to fight in Afghanistan in the 1980s and early 1990s in cohorts with America, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and other powers.

Turning the clock forward to 2013 and even now Pakistan is playing a dangerous game whereby the ISI and other intrigues in this nation are enabling militant Sunni Islamist forces to have a foothold aimed at Afghanistan and India. Therefore, the Shia and other religious minorities suffer enormous persecution because Sunni Islamist militant forces were allowed to flourish in this country.

Therefore, in Pakistan it is clear that Sunni Islamic jihadists remain a fixture within the geopolitical ambitions of this nation. After all, Pakistan can’t defeat the military of India based on past conflicts that erupted between both nations. However, Kashmir can be taken by stealth by Pakistan based on spreading Islamic militancy and indoctrinating the people of Kashmir. Also, indigenous Sunni Islam in this part of India is being transformed by Saudi versions of Salafi Islam and the militant message of Takfiris in Pakistan.

Takfiris and militant Salafists in nations like Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria adore beheading, blowing up people, destroying the economy of nations they are based in, infringing on the rights of non-Muslims, persecuting the Shia, shackling women and other draconian realities. Overwhelmingly, these militant Salafi fanatics are mainly slaughtering Muslims and destroying Muslim dominated nation states. Nothing is productive and now from Afghanistan to Nigeria in West Africa you have an enormous belt of chaos, daily massacres and destabilized nation states. These ultra reactionaries are a mirror to the reality of modern day Saudi Arabia whereby all non-Muslim faiths are banned, the Shia are persecuted, women are forced to cover-up and marrying little girls is legal based on Sharia Islamic law.

Of course, wealthy elites in Saudi invest in major fashion houses, buy property all over the world, travel first class, invest in powerful football teams and enjoy a life which is completely free from the shackles that they enforce on society. Despite this, modern day al-Qaeda affiliates and radical Salafi and Takfiri forces ignore this reality because they are doing the bidding of the same wealthy Salafi establishment in Saudi. Therefore, wealthy Saudis are not threatened by “year zero Sunni Islamists” but in Pakistan the situation isn’t so clear because draconian forces are also based internally.

 

[batmannow]

PTI & IMRAN also be asked to tell the truth, how many of the USD from 3 million donated USD by overseas american pakistanis, gone in TTp hands?

 

[TalibanSwatter]

PTI & IMRAN also be asked to tell the truth, how many of the USD from 3 million donated USD by overseas american pakistanis, gone in TTp hands?

Apart from PTI, the PML N government needs to ask our so called Saudi 'friends' to explain as to why the bulk of TTP funding is coming from the Salafis in Saudi. Some tough questions need to be asked of the Saudi crown prince.

 

[senheiser]

muslims need to understand that conservative islam hinders progress and economic stability. Saudi arabia only works because of oil, you cant export the saudi model to countries without resources.

 

[xyxmt]

dont blame anyone but your own govt, your army, your people
you economy is at rock bottom, your education is null
what do you expect people to do when they need to feed their families, a man will do anything to feed his kids.
Yes Saudi funding is to blame but look for the reasons why that Saudi funding gets a home in Pakistan, money buys suicide bombers, Imagine a guy taking money to blow himself up so his family can eat...so sad...This has nothing to do with Islam its pure economic

 

[TalibanSwatter]

The Nation

Jalees Hazir

The flurry of high-level visits between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that started with the installation of the Sharif government has intensified and is reaching a sort of a crescendo these days. After visits by quite a few members of the all-important royal family, the crown prince of the kingdom, who also officiates as the Deputy Prime Minister and the Defence Minister, arrived here two days ago with a battery of ministers. The entire Pakistani power hierarchy was at the airport to receive him including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The reports, as usual, are full of clichés about brotherly relations and royal promises of investment and jobs but don’t say much about the “discussion on regional matters” that is mentioned only in passing. Ironically, this un-discussed discussion is what matters the most.
As it is, the discourse on terrorism in Pakistan does not pay enough attention to the international context within which our nightmare is unfolding. Obviously, it is not as simple as the violence of a few thousand men misled in the name of God. It is not an isolated phenomenon, that arose by itself and has grown on its own, but something unmistakably linked to a much larger barbaric machine, assembled and let loose on many countries of the world. It is not sustained by divine air-drops but a nexus of international players who provide the terrorists with sanctuaries, sophisticated weapons and gadgetry and bundles of dollars. It would be naïve to think that we could end terrorism without tackling the international dimension to this curse. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Sharif government appears to be doing.
The public stance of the government regarding its talks with the TTP conveys the impression that the state is negotiating with some disgruntled citizens gone violent. It refuses to address the issue of international linkages of and support for the terrorist organization, the bulk of the iceberg that floats beneath its bloodstained tip. President Karzai has finally admitted that there are sanctuaries for terrorists operating against Pakistan in his country but naturally there is not much he can do about it now that he is on his way out. Heading a government propped up by occupation forces, there wasn’t much he could do about it even earlier.

However, what concerns us is the phenomenon of the so-called Islamic terrorists that are targeting Pakistan. Why do our terrorists have so much in common with those wreaking havoc in Syria, Libya and Iraq? Is it just a coincidence that they mouth the same intolerant and extremist brand of Islam? Is it just by chance that their tactics, their targets and the way they terrorize and kill citizens are the same? What is the role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in all of this? It is not insignificant by any count.

From the days of the ‘Afghan jihad’ against the Soviet Union, when Saudi Arabia partnered with the CIA to create fodder for the imperial war machine, sponsoring seminaries in Pakistan and designing their rabidly sectarian syllabi to create militant Islamists with no regard for fellow Muslims let alone minorities, the kingdom has continued to work closely with the US-led empire on propping up these militant groups for reshaping the Middle East. The propagation of an extremist sectarian ideology in Muslim countries has been more damaging than the logistical support that it has provided for attacking its Muslim neighbors. It is openly supporting the terrorists in Syria morally and materially. Interestingly, the two countries most upset by the US decision to back off from attacking Syria were Israel and Saudi Arabia.

In Pakistan, for decades Saudi Arabia has sponsored clerics, seminaries, religious organizations and groups that provide the bedrock of support for the terrorists. The terrorists themselves were weaned in such institutions and subscribe to the sectarian ideology promoted by the kingdom. The influence the Saudi rulers wield within the Pakistani establishment should not be under-estimated either; what with the whisking away of a deposed Prime Minister and his return before time. Add to this the special ties with the Sharif family that it hosted in exile for almost a decade, and we have an alarming situation at hand. Surely, there is more to these frequent meetings between the high and mighty of the two countries than meets the eye.

Somehow, the policies and actions of the royal rulers of Saudi Arabia are generally exempted from scrutiny in Pakistan. This might have to do with their status as the custodians of Khana Kaaba and the leadership of the Muslim world that they claim for themselves as a consequence of that. If their opulent lifestyles and hereditary monarchy, both repugnant to the teachings of Islam, is not enough to strip them of their leadership claim, their propagation of a sectarian war within Muslim countries surely is. It is time to deal with the royal Saudi government without the reverence traditionally reserved for it.

Does the Sharif government’s soft corner for the TTP have anything to do with the Saudi connection? What is the Saudi position on the TTP and the government’s dialogue with the terrorist organization? What, after all, are the “regional matters” that the two sides will discuss? The Saudi citizens might not have the right to know, ruled as they are by a king. But is it not the right of Pakistanis to know the details of the discussion its government has with an international player so deeply involved in the business of Islamic extremism? The 'brotherly' relations are all very well, but at this crucial time in our history, the government cannot be allowed to continue the policy of secrecy when it comes to “discussion on regional matters” with Saudi Arabia.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

The Independent - UK

Donors in Saudi Arabia have notoriously played a pivotal role in creating and maintaining Sunni jihadist groups over the past 30 years. But, for all the supposed determination of the United States and its allies since 9/11 to fight "the war on terror", they have showed astonishing restraint when it comes to pressuring Saudi Arabia to turn off the financial tap that keeps the jihadists in business.

Compare two US pronouncements stressing the significance of these donations and basing their conclusions on the best intelligence available to the US government. The first is in the 9/11 Commission Report which found that Osama bin Laden did not fund al-Qa'ida because from 1994 he had little money of his own but relied on his ties to wealthy Saudi individuals established during the Afghan war in the 1980s. Quoting, among other sources, a CIA analytic report dated 14 November 2002, the commission concluded that "al-Qa'ida appears to have relied on a core group of financial facilitators who raised money from a variety of donors and other fund-raisers primarily in the Gulf countries and particularly in Saudi Arabia".

Seven years pass after the CIA report was written during which the US invades Iraq fighting, among others, the newly established Iraq franchise of al-Qa'ida, and becomes engaged in a bloody war in Afghanistan with the resurgent Taliban. American drones are fired at supposed al-Qa'ida-linked targets located everywhere from Waziristan in north-west Pakistan to the hill villages of Yemen. But during this time Washington can manage no more than a few gentle reproofs to Saudi Arabia on its promotion of fanatical and sectarian Salafi militancy outside its own borders.

Evidence for this is a fascinating telegram on "terrorist finance" from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to US embassies, dated 30 December 2009 and released by WikiLeaks the following year. She says firmly that "donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Salafi terrorist groups worldwide". Eight years after 9/11, when 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, Mrs Clinton reiterates in the same message that "Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support for al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, Laskhar e Jhangvi and other terrorist groups". Saudi Arabia was most important in sustaining these groups, but it was not quite alone since "al-Qa'ida and other groups continue to exploit Kuwait both as a source of funds and as a key transit point".

Why did the US and its European allies treat Saudi Arabia with such restraint when the kingdom was so central to al-Qa'ida and other even more sectarian jihadist organisations? An obvious explanation is that the US, Britain and others did not want to offend a close ally and that the Saudi royal family had judiciously used its money to buy its way into the international ruling class. Unconvincing attempts were made to link Iran and Iraq to al-Qa'ida when the real culprits were in plain sight.

But there is another compelling reason why the Western powers have been so laggard in denouncing Saudi Arabia for spreading bigotry and religious hate. Al-Qa'ida members or al-Qa'ida-influenced groups have always held two very different views about who is their main opponent. For Osama bin Laden the chief enemy was the Americans, but for the great majority of Salafi jihadists, including the al-Qa'ida franchises in Iraq and Syria, the target is the Shia. It is the Shia who have been dying in their thousands in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and even in countries where there are few of them to kill, such as Egypt.

Pakistani papers no longer pay much attention to hundreds of Shia butchered from Quetta to Lahore. In Iraq, most of the 7,000 or more people killed this year are Shia civilians killed by the bombs of al-Qa'ida in Iraq, part of an umbrella organisation called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), which also encompasses Syria. In overwhelmingly Sunni Libya, salafi militants in the eastern town of Derna killed an Iraqi professor who admitted on video to being a Shia before being executed by his captors.

Suppose a hundredth part of this merciless onslaught had been directed against Western targets rather than against Shia Muslims, would the Americans and the British be so accommodating to the Saudis? It is this that gives a sense of phoniness to boasts by the vastly expanded security bureaucracies in Washington and London about their success in combating terror justifying vast budgets for themselves and restricted civil liberties for everybody else. All the drones in the world fired into Pashtun villages in Pakistan or their counterparts in Yemen or Somalia are not going to make much difference if the Salafi jihadists in Iraq and Syria ever decide – as Osama bin Laden did before them – that their main enemies are to be found not among the Shia but in the United States and Britain.

Instead of the fumbling amateur efforts of the shoe and underpants bombers, security services would have to face jihadist movements in Iraq, Syria and Libya fielding hundreds of bomb-makers and suicide bombers. Only gradually this year, videos from Syria of non-Sunnis being decapitated for sectarian motives alone have begun to shake the basic indifference of the Western powers to Salafi jihadism so long as it is not directed against themselves.

Saudi Arabia as a government for a long time took a back seat to Qatar in funding rebels in Syria, and it is only since this summer that they have taken over the file. They wish to marginalise the al-Qa'ida franchisees such as Isil and the al-Nusra Front while buying up and arming enough Sunni war-bands to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

The directors of Saudi policy in Syria – the Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, the head of the Saudi intelligence agency Prince Bandar bin Sultan and the Deputy Defence Minister Prince Salman bin Sultan – plan to spend billions raising a militant Salafi army some 40,000 to 50,000 strong. Already local warlords are uniting to share in Saudi largesse for which their enthusiasm is probably greater than their willingness to fight.

The Saudi initiative is partly fuelled by rage in Riyadh at President Obama's decision not to go to war with Syria after Assad used chemical weapons on 21 August. Nothing but an all-out air attack by the US similar to that of Nato in Libya in 2011 would overthrow Assad, so the US has essentially decided he will stay for the moment. Saudi anger has been further exacerbated by the successful US-led negotiations on an interim deal with Iran over its nuclear programme.

By stepping out of the shadows in Syria, the Saudis are probably making a mistake. Their money will only buy them so much. The artificial unity of rebel groups with their hands out for Saudi money is not going to last. They will be discredited in the eyes of more fanatical salafi jihadis as well as Syrians in general as pawns of Saudi and other intelligence services.

The Saudi plan looks doomed from the start, though it could get a lot more Syrians killed before it fails. Yazid Sayegh of the Carnegie Middle East Centre highlights succinctly the risks involved in the venture: "Saudi Arabia could find itself replicating its experience in Afghanistan, where it built up disparate mujahedin groups that lacked a unifying political framework. The forces were left unable to govern Kabul once they took it, paving the way for the Taliban to take over. Al-Qa'ida followed, and the blowback subsequently reached Saudi Arabia."

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Apparently Sami ul Haq has just rushed off to Saudi Arabia after the TTP spokesperson rejected the demand for unconditional ceasfire. Perhaps he has gone to strategize with his and TTP's Saudi masters??