Nasr Calls on U.S. To Prevent Saudi From Killing the Arab Spring

Vali Nasr, writing for Bloomberg, states that Saudi Arabia has emerged as “the leader of a new rejectionist front that is determined to defeat popular demand for reform.”   The country’s leadership has made clear that they find U.S. support for democracy dangerous and naive presenting policymakers with a choice between upholding U.S. values and U.S. strategic interests.  Nasr argues, however, that this is “false choice” and calls on the U.S. to challenge the Saudis instead of trying to placate them.  He outlines the dangerous role Saudi Arabia has played over the last months through its support of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,  its intervention in Bahrain to counter U.S. efforts to mediate a political dialogue between the Bahraini royal family and the opposition, and its  recent invitation to Jordan and Morocco to join the Gulf Cooperation Council.  Nasr states that the GCC expansion will likely require Jordan and Morocco to abandon their reform process and promise to lend their “more serious militaries” to help put down any future protests in the Gulf.

Nasr urges the U.S. not to concede to Saudi Arabia as it will not only put the U.S.  on the “wrong side of a widely popular historical transformation in the region,” but will also likely place it in the middle of a regional conflict between the Gulf countries and Iran.  He also calls on the U.S. to be more assertive with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, make clear that the U.S. supports reform and universal rights in Bahrain and will intervene if rulers fail to institute a dialogue and reform, and to affirm U.S. support for reform initiatives in Jordan and Morocco.  Doing so, will not lead to an interruption of foreign oil, as their livelihood depends on our use of oil and given the GCC countries’ need for U.S. protection.