‘US has abandoned us’: Why Gulf is rethinking Western ties

As tensions in West Asia escalate, with more and more nations being drawn into the conflict involving the US-Israel and Iran, the question that is increasingly being asked is whether any strategic partner of the US in the region can actually rely upon Washington.

To get answers, The Federal spoke to senior journalist and writer Dr Waiel Awwad about the future of Gulf-West ties, Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, Israel and the wider regional conflict.

Edited excerpts:

Do you agree that this is a classic situation where yet another strategic partner’s relationship with the US and the West in general is a one-way street?

I believe this is the situation, and that is the voice in the Arab world, especially in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), that “America has abandoned us. America has abandoned and betrayed the Arab cause. They are only searching for their interests first and cannot assume that their interests will always coincide with ours”.

America’s interests follow its own interests. There are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. That has been the slogan for years.

For the last 50 or 60 years, we have seen the Gulf countries prospering and growing stronger and stronger, thinking that American protection is the main reason why they have been prosperous and there has been tranquillity in the region.

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The fact of the matter remains that the Americans have made the regime of Iran, ever since the Islamic Revolution, appear as a devil. They demonised Iran and told the Arab countries, particularly those in the GCC, that they needed American protection, so their loyalty had to be paid for by keeping them in power.

That is where the Americans failed them. When the Gulf war broke out, when America attacked Iran with Israel, the Arab countries did not even give consent for the Americans to use their military bases in their territories when Iran threatened to attack them.

The retaliatory attack by the Iranians against American military bases in this region has been devastating. The Arabs paid the price for it. They were protecting the Americans rather than the Americans protecting them.

Will this lead to a reset in Gulf-West ties, with Gulf nations reconsidering their dependence on Western powers?

I believe there is a lot of rethinking among the Gulf states. They want to have a new security framework in the region that includes some regional stakeholders and other forces rather than only America and the West. That is what is required.

More than 30 years ago, Iran also gave them a proposal to sign a security deal together — that there would be no attack on each other and that they would protect their interests.

But America and the West kept Iran as the devil in the region. They continued to demonise Iran and told the Arabs not to trust the Iranians.

Now, I believe there are a lot of talks and backstage diplomacy to prevent the Arabs from going for a direct confrontation with Iran. Instead, they are looking for a solution to the current crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.

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The Americans sabotaged and postponed what was supposed to take place in Muscat. The Americans complicated this war by blocking Iranian commercial ships, while Iran continued the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.

By the way, we do not know who has full control over the Strait of Hormuz — neither the Iranians nor the Americans. It is the commercial shipping that is paying the price.

This war has also expanded. The global crisis will be aggravated unless these countries can sit down together, along with the Arab countries and Iran, and find a solution.

That solution is very far away, and we cannot see it in the very close future because the American president is adamant about continuing, and wants the Arabs to have a direct confrontation with Iran and pay the price for his Guantanamo.

Would you call this a betrayal by the West in general, but by Donald Trump in particular, in terms of protecting and coordinating with the Gulf states?

I do not think it is diplomatic immaturity. The Americans made it very clear: “We will protect you, but we will not fight your war.”

They wanted the Arabs to fight the war. The Americans said, “You pay us, we give you the weapons, we give you the logistics, and you continue with this policy.” They never wanted to go for a direct confrontation.

That is why even the Americans declined attacking the Houthis, but they said, “We will give you protection.” However, this deal has not been carried out.

The Arab countries have spent billions of dollars on American arms. President Trump made more than USD 500 billion in deals on military equipment for Arab countries to protect themselves.

He went in his second term and collected USD 6 trillion and walked away to the United States happily.

It is cowboy diplomacy, where the cowboy puts a gun to the head of the manager of the bank and tells him, “Open the locker.” He opens the locker, the cowboy steals the money, shoots him in the head and walks away.

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There is a permanent American interest, no permanent friend and no permanent enemy. The world has to understand that.

Let us add one more point, which is very important. America made it clear even for NATO. In the Russia-Ukraine war, they will not go for a direct confrontation. They wanted the NATO members to deal with themselves and raise their defence expenditures.

The budget was raised by those countries to defend themselves. America will give you logistical support. America will not fight anybody’s war.

America will follow its own interests, its own national interest. Where is the oil? Where is the interest?

They went to Venezuela, hijacked the president, abducted him, took the oil for 30 years, with the American company selling it to the rest of the world.

They tried in Iran and failed. Tomorrow they will be in Nigeria, Greenland, Algeria — name it, wherever there is oil.

Therefore, the world has to understand that there are certain remnants of colonial thinking in the minds of those people in the West, thinking that they can recolonise this world.

I believe that is the message to the world — the Arab world, the Asian world and others. That is why we saw it at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting. We saw it at BRICS, at the G20 and in South-South cooperation.

We need to cooperate and find solutions to crises, not let other people tell us, “This is a good war, this is a bad war, this is a good terrorist, this is a bad terrorist,” because that is for their own interest.

We know how to deal with it ourselves and we should find a solution for all of us within ourselves. Otherwise, we will all be taken one by one.

If the Gulf nations are rethinking their dependence on the West, can Israel necessarily be seen as a reliable alternative for Saudi Arabia?

Absolutely not. America and Israel are two sides of the same coin.

America is protecting Israel, and American interest in the region is based on two things only. One is oil, and the second is the protection of Israel and continuing to support Israel to dominate militarily, economically and politically.

The Arab countries understood this even after the Gulf and Gaza crises. Look at the West Bank and what is happening.

The Israeli minister has openly said it, and the prime minister has openly said it — that they are talking about a Greater Israel, which goes from the Euphrates to the Nile, including Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, and also one-fifth of Egypt and one-third of Saudi Arabia.

So Saudi Arabia feels more vulnerable.

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I believe the attack by the Houthis and their reoccupation of the territory around Bab el-Mandeb is nothing but blackmailing Saudi Arabia to push it into the Abraham Accords.

Saudi Arabia was opposing the Abraham Accords as an Islamic country and was taking a very strong position against them.

Now, with the aggravating situation, they are forcing it into the Mecca Accords, where they want Turkey and Pakistan to take a place.

Now they are going to Egypt for the same reason.

People are talking about American-Israeli help for Saudi Arabia, provided Saudi Arabia goes and joins the Abraham Accords.

Therefore, it always comes with the stick and the carrot. America will only go where its interests go, and I do not think Saudi Arabia will fall into this trap.

With alerts over Mecca and Medina and reports of Houthi attacks and intercepted weapons, could this create sympathy among Muslim nations or widen the Shia-Sunni divide?

There is no question of Shia-Sunni at the moment. This is the ultimate vested interest of nations that want to see the fight continue.

The idea is that the Arabs, the Persians and the rest of the community can fight each other, while they are the ones who can extract the oil. Let us divide and rule. That is one of the issues.

The Houthis have their own problem within Yemen. By the way, the Houthis, if you look at their history, have ruled Yemen for thousands of years.

Because of political mileage and political sidelines, they came into power with the government of Yemen and signed a deal with it to rule together during the time of President Abdullah Saleh.

Then the Saudis led the war, along with the Emirates and 14 nations, against the Houthis in Yemen, and the crisis has aggravated.

At the moment, there is no question that the Houthis are attacking the holy shrine in Saudi Arabia, despite the claim that was made. Even the Pakistanis jumped in and wanted to raise public opinion to take part in this war.

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By the way, the first people in the world who put the first cover of Mecca, the holy shrine in the Kaaba, were the Houthis — the Yemenis — a thousand years ago.

Therefore, it is not about saying how religious they are. The question here is that they are trying to involve other Islamic countries in a war and give it the tag of a Shia-Sunni conflict, because Iran, as a neighbouring country, is refusing to take part in any ground forces led by the Americans.

If you break up these things, then you may cause a rift within the Arab world and allow this mess to be created.

I believe the Arabs are more conscious, and Muslim people are conscious about the development. That is why they are calling for dialogue and some sort of compromise between the Saudis, the Houthis, the Yemenis and the Iranians.

If that really can be set at Moscow, then we can find hope at the end of the tunnel.

Otherwise, America will keep pushing for a confrontation because they make money only through extra battle zones.