GUEST BLOG: Lois Griffiths – What a Trio, a Toxic Trio: Trump. Netanyahu and Mohammed Bin Salman
Remember Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia last May and the photographs of the US President doing a sword dance with Saudi rulers? I couldn’t believe that Trump wouldn’t be hounded by the American media until he resigned. Saudi Arabia, the only country named after the family that rules it. Saudi Arabia, the country that holds public beheadings of its enemies. Saudi Arabia, that spends lavishly to export Wahabism, its extreme form of Islamism. Saudi Arabia, the country has so viciously bombed Yemen that the Yemenis are facing an apocalyptic famine and cholera crisis .
But Trump wasn’t ‘hounded out of office’. Maybe this says something about media ownership.
So Saudi Arabia is a US ally, according to the White House. Well, Saudi rulers are extremely wealthy, and they spend big on weapons.
That was last May.
In November, an article appeared in the Christchurch Press , about ties of friendship between the Israeli and Saudi regimes. I wrote a letter about this to The Press, that wasn’t published. But here it is.
“So Saudi Arabia is a ‘moderate Arab country’ according to the Israeli military (Press, 18 Nov.) Try telling that to the people of Yemen. The UN warns that some 7 million Yemenis are on the verge of starvation. Yemen is also suffering a cholera epidemic that has infected more than 900,000. Such is the result of massive Saudi bombing using weapons bought from the US and Britain.Now the UN reports that a Saudi embargo is blocking ships with food and other humanitarian aid from reaching Yemen. Sounds like what Israel is doing to Gaza.The Israel military commander says, “There are many common interests between us and them.” Perhaps the ‘common interests’ include a contempt for international law and the UN as well as a desire to destroy Iran, a country that hasn’t attacked another country for centuries.Benjamin Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Salman. What a pair. Maybe they deserve each other . But the world doesn’t. “
My letter raised an important question. The Israeli Embassy should be asked to clarify what ‘common interests’ the military commander was referring to.
That was November.
Just a few days ago, 14 December, the US Ambassador Nikki Haley addressing an American military base in Washington DC, declared that the Iranian regime poses “a threat to the peace and security of the entire world…it’s hard to find a conflict or a terrorist group in the Middle East does not have Iran’s fingerprints all over it.”
The American Embassy should be asked to explain who authorized Ms Haley to make these provocative remarks. Is she calling for Iran to get the ‘Libya and Iraq’ treatment?
We here in NZ need to debate our role in the world. There is too much at stake. New Zealand should not be afraid to have an independent foreign policy. Someone must say NO to militarism , NO to war, YES to sanity, YES to humanity.
Yes! yes! yes! Lois Griffiths
I’m sick and tired of the notion that we have to choose an imperial protector
that human nature is fundamentally aggressive,that a wish for neutrality, independence and peace is naive
The reality is that we can no longer afford to go down the track of realpolitik, being dragged in to America’s catastrophic wars,even if only to provide diplomatic respectability and a few token troops
The stakes are now too high, with cavalier approaches to the use of nuclear weapons leading us to the point of no return and annihilation
If war is human nature , we really need to transcend human nature
On the nail Lois – as usual. The major arms dealers, headed by the dysfunctional States of Amerika, need new testing grounds for their weaponry. The Saudis with their billions and Yemenis as soft targets suits nicely. You just forgot the Saudi who screwed over the NZ taxpayer, courtesy of the incompetence and connivance of the gNats and their “Public” Service acolytes.
You are absolutely right Lois. Having an independent Foreign Policy will also allow NZ to act as an honest peace broker in the Middle East especially now that Trump has dropped all pretence at America being an unbiased mediator between Israel and Palestine.