A columnist for a newspaper owned by the Saudi royal family said President Barack Obama has no comprehension of the dangerous ramifications of the emerging deal with Iran and suggested the president was pursuing it for “personal glory.”
"What is currently clear is [one of two things]: Either the American president is striving to attain personal glory, the outcome of which cannot be assessed, or he does not comprehend the implicit of his actions – [this is] a possibility that is closer to reality,” columnist Tariq Al-Homayed wrote in the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.
Al-Homayed asserted that “the region is facing a real disaster and we do not know how matters will develop until the term of office of President Obama, who is leading the entire region into real disaster, expires.”
President Barack Obama meets new Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdul Aziz in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 27, 2015. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The column comes one week after another scathing indictment of Obama’s leadership from a Saudi columnist. Ahmad Al-Faraj wrote in the pro-government Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, “I believe that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s conduct will serve our interests, the people of the Gulf, much more than the foolish behavior of one of the worst American presidents.”
Secretary of State John Kerry was in Riyadh last week trying to persuade the Saudis – who are aligned with Israel on the Iran threat – that the deal over Iran's nuclear program is a good one.
In Al-Homayed's view, Kerry's mission to reassure the Saudis not only did not succeed but backfired.
"The U.S. secretary of state's statements in Riyadh were unpersuasive and not reassuring,” wrote Al-Homayed, who is a former editor of the paper.
Saudi Arabia is worried about Iran potentially developing a nuclear weapon, but also about the spread of the Shiite republic’s influence in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
While he lambasted Obama and Kerry, the Saudi columnist said Netanyahu’s words to Congress “reflect reality,” rare praise for an Israeli leader from a Saudi.
The columnist warned of a regional nuclear arms race should Iran obtain a nuclear capability.
"The response to the existence of an Iranian bomb will undoubtedly be an Arab nuclear bomb,” he wrote. “If this does not happen, our countries will appear to welcome the Iranian game, and will fall victim to the naivete of a few people in Washington."
"Thus, Kerry's Riyadh visit is worrisome and not reassuring, and all the relevant countries in the region must consider every possible option as available to them in order to respond to this absurd American step that can release the [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini genie – which will bring nothing to the region but destruction and civil war," he wrote.
The column, published Saturday, was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
