A Way Forward, a Look Back

By Robert Parry
December 13, 2006

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to Washington and the former chief of Saudi intelligence, informed the State Department on Dec. 11 that he had resigned after only 15 months on the job and flew home.

The unceremonious departure was seen as another signal of Saudi anger over Bush’s regional policies. In that view, Turki’s resignation was akin to the recall of an ambassador between two hostile states, albeit softened by Turki’s insistence that he was leaving to spend more time with his family.

Two weeks earlier, Saudi King Abdullah summoned Vice President Dick Cheney to Riyadh to express the kingdom’s displeasure with developments in Iraq, as the pro-Iranian Shiite majority gains the upper hand over the Sunni minority that dominated the country under Saddam Hussein.

The oil-rich Saudis, who represent the heart of Sunni power and influence in the Middle East, had long viewed a Sunni-led Iraq as a crucial buffer against the Shiite fundamentalists who gained control of Iran in 1979 by overthrowing the pro-U.S. Shah of Iran.

The Saudi royal family feared that Iran’s austere fundamentalism could spread across the Middle East, radicalizing the Shiite populations and threatening the pampered lifestyles of the Persian Gulf’s sheiks and princes. Iraq, with what was then the Arab world’s strongest army, was positioned to stop that.

So, in 1980, the Saudis privately conveyed to Saddam Hussein what they claimed was a “green light” from U.S. President Jimmy Carter for Hussein to attack Iran, according to a “top secret” document that then-Secretary of State Alexander Haig used to brief President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

[For more on the Haig document, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Saddam’s ‘Green Light’” or “Missing U.S.-Iraq History,” or see the actual document by clicking here. For his part, Carter has denied urging the invasion.]

After hearing the Saudi advice, Hussein invaded Iran in September 1980, touching off a bloody eight-year war that killed or maimed an estimated one million people... http://tinyurl.com/y5x9re [Open in new window]

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