Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, CDHR, Washington DC

January 5, 2022

CDHR’s Analysis And Commentaries

 

Is Ending The Yemen War in the Making?

CDHR Analysis: Revalidated and reassured by French President Macron’s moral collapse and acrimonious strategic objective to replace the U.S. as a major arms dealer and defender of the Saudi de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and his like-minded Gulf allies, MBS embarked on a swift tour of the GCC states on December 6 to remind its ruling monocracies that he remains regionally and globally the Gulf’s top influencer, as demonstrated by President Macron’s visit and glorification of the Saudis’ regional influence. Prior to his hasty one day tour, MBS publicly implored the gulf rulers, the U.S. and the EU governments to help him fend off the Houthi rebels’ missile attacks. He proclaimed that he is running out of ammunition to intercept the increasingly accurate missile assaults on the Saudi kingdom. Did MBS’s admission prior to his tour to meet with the GCC five heads of state just a few days before they assembled in the Saudi capital for their 42nd summit on December 14, suggest he realized that he has no choice but to end the war in Yemen just as he ended the blockade of Qatar when he failed to bring the Qataris to their knees? Full analysis: www.cdhr.info

MBS’s public declaration of his inability to defend the kingdom against the Houthi missiles without a massive supply of missile interceptors, followed by an inexplicable trip to meet with the GCC heads of state suggest that he is exploring ways to bring the increasingly divisive and costly war to an end. Given MBS’s unpredictable mood-swings and impulsive decisions, it’s likely that he wanted to feel the pulse of the GCC rulers and seek their support for a new approach to end th e war in Yemen before they congregate in Riyadh for their summit over which his hard-line father presides. For full analysis: www.cdhr.info

Costly Consequences of the Catastrophic Yemen War

CDHR Commentary: After conducting deadly air strikes against the Yemeni Houthi rebels recently in and around Sanaa, the ancient walled-capital of Yemen, Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab Coalition, “Warns of ‘Wider, More Comprehensive’ Strikes” in other parts of Yemen. The General should be reminded that this is what the failed overwhelming Saudi, Egyptian, Sudani and Emirati ( UAE) hi-tech air and mercenary-like ground forces have been conducting in Yemen since March 2015. The coalition’s forces have nothing to show for their cruelty other than devastation of the Yemeni infrastructure, impoverishment, starvation and displacement of countless numbers of its 26 million population, as well as emboldenment of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and their local and foreign like-minded groups. More death and destruction won’t bring the Yemenis to their knees, transform them into “better and submissive” neighbors or secure Saudi border cities, towns and villages, many of whose residents have been killed and their properties destroyed by the fierce retaliating Yemeni Houthi forces. Full analysis: www.cdhr.info

Saudi Oligarchs are no Longer Pariahs?

CDHR Commentary: Three years ago (Oct. 2018,) Saudi critic and promoter of free expression, Jamal Khashoggi, was lured to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, where he was bone-sawed by a team of the Saudi rulers’ assassins. That ruinous event exposed the Saudi oligarchs for what they are known to be, ruthless tyrants. “As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden promised to make a pariah out of Saudi Arab ia over the 2018 killing of dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi…” As President, Biden discovered that this was easier said than done, to the disappointment of those who had hoped that he would stand up for American democratic values, upon which his predecessor trampled. Full analysis: www.cdhr.info

Pernicious Effect of the Taliban’s Victory on Saudi Society

CDHR Commentary: The primary recipients of the Taliban’s ideological and political brutality will be the people of Afghanistan, especially women and religious minorities, but other Muslim societies will directly or indirectly be affected. Historically, Muslim societies (especially Arab societies) have shared varying levels of embedded impeding traditions: misogyny and religious intolerance, both of which the Taliban brazenly practice. There are millions of influential and Taliban like-minded segments in all Arab and Muslim socieits who see the Taliban’s victory as an endorsement of their toxic zealotry. One Muslim society that will be subject to pestilent fallout of the Taliban triumph is Saudi society, particularly women, religious minorities, human rights activists, advocates of political participation and freedom of expression, as well as outspoken clerics. Full analysis: www.cdhr.info 

THE American Retreat from Afghanistan

By Colonel David Cade (Ret. Air Force) Member of CDHR Board of Directors

The American withdrawal from Afghanistan will have negative repercussions on US national security interests for years to come, even setting aside the fiasco of the internationally embarrassing chaotic departure of our troops, citizens and Afghan local-national employees who are now in serious danger. From my perspective as someone who has been closely involved in national security matters for 62 years as an Air Force officer, National War College graduate, defense industry executive, and corporate CEO, I can say that this is the worst failure of the world’s only superpower to exercise its full military and diplomatic power projection capabilities that I’ve ever witnessed.  But it’s also very dangerous because it sends the wrong message to our allies and our enemies alike…..that we’re weak, ineffective, and impotent. Full analysis: www.cdhr.info 

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