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A10 Tuesday, december 22, 2015|
Saudi Arabia’s ‘Coalition’ Is a Brazen Challenge to Syria, Iran, and the USBy Scott Lucas
Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and Defense Minis-ter Mohammed bin Salman’s announcement of a new Saudi-led counterterrorism coalition surprised allies like the United States, adversaries such as Iran, and other interested parties including Russia.
Prince Mohammed said the Saudis had formed a 34-nation “Islamic military coalition” to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) and other terrorist groups. A head-quarters in Riyadh will provide military, intelligence, logistics, and other support to members as needed.
This was so surprising that countries in the new coalition said they were unaware they were founding members. Paki-stan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said he had learned of the initiative only when he read the prince’s statement, and that he had asked Pakistan’s ambas-sador in Riyadh to get a clarifi-cation from Saudi officials.
The Indonesian Foreign Min-istry was only slightly more dip-lomatic, saying that “the gov-ernment is still observing and waiting to see the modalities of the military coalition.” Malay-sian Defense Minister Hisham-muddin Hussein, while support-ing the coalition, ruled out “any military commitment.”
So this was hardly the unveil-ing of a grand military initia-tive. Instead, it was a political message—not just to Russia and Iran, but to Riyadh’s nominal allies in Washington.
From Syria to YemenFor starters, we must recog-nize that Riyadh’s announce-ment is more of a PR exercise, rather than a revelation of any military cooperation, amid the twin challenges of escalat-ing Saudi involvement in Syria and Yemen.
Since 2012, Saudi Arabia has backed Syrian opposition and rebel groups in their attempt to overthrow the Assad regime, providing arms and money as well as political support.
However, that effort has always been constrained by the United States and its indecision over intervention. The Saudis were especially angered by Pres-ident Barack Obama’s sudden U-turn after the Assad regime’s chemical attacks near Damas-cus in August, as the presi-dent—with forces from Paris to Riyadh ready to respond—stepped away from what the Sau-dis had thought was the agreed plan for intervention.
Saudi-American relations con-tinued to fray as U.S.-led oper-ations rooms in Turkey and Jordan put limits on military assistance to rebel groups.
The ailing King Abdullah was too cautious to break from Wash-ington, but his death in January brought in a more assertive court with King Salman, the Crown Prince and Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef, and the 30-year-old deputy crown prince, who is also the king’s son.
Saudi Arabia not only renewed aid to the rebels but mended fences with Qatar—which since 2012 had been vying with Riyadh over which factions to assist—to ensure a more effective effort. The decision had immediate significance, with rebels captur-ing much of northwestern Syria and parts of the south.
Meanwhile, Riyadh doubled its bet with the decision for mil-itary intervention in Yemen. Worried about the takeover of the capital Sana’a by the Ansar Allah (Houthi) movement and the group’s advance south
toward the port city of Aden, where president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi had fled, the Sau-dis announced a coalition and began bombing.
The aerial operations checked Ansar Allah’s expansion, but at a heavy cost. Counterattacks have killed scores of troops from Saudi Arabia, its coali-tion partners, and mercenary units. Riyadh has been widely criticized for the destruction and deaths of civilians from its bombs. And with Hadi proving an ineffectual leader with no vis-ible alternative, the likelihood of a political resolution is slim.
A further complication came in Syria with the start of Rus-sia’s own bombing campaign on Sept. 30. The Saudis had blocked a Russian-Iranian ini-tiative for international talks to confirm President Assad in power, at least for the short
term in a “transition,” but now Moscow was using its military operations to convene a con-ference. Pressed by the United States, Riyadh reluctantly agreed to attend and to accept Iran’s participation.
The Contest With IranGiven Saudi Arabia’s longtime rivalry with Iran for influ-ence in the Middle East and the Islamic world, this latest announcement will simply be slotted into the storyline of their geopolitical competition.
Iran has spent years making grand declarations of its own. In 2011, the Supreme Leader tried to seize leadership of the “Arab Spring” across the Mid-dle East and North Africa by renaming it the “Islamic Awak-ening.” That effort soon ran into trouble, as Egypt’s new leader-ship refused to follow Tehran, and the Islamic Republic faced economic crisis and pressure over its nuclear program.
But in 2013, the new president, Hassan Rouhani, tried to regain the initiative with a proposed program loftily titled “World Against Violence and Extrem-ism.” At the same time, Tehran maintained some of its regional alliances, such as the ties with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and tried to deal with strain on others, such as relations with Pales-tine’s Hamas.
At the nexus of the rhetoric and the confrontation is Syria.
While Saudi Arabia has chosen the opposition and rebels, Iran has poured in billions of dol-lars in economic aid, hundreds of commanders and troops, and Iranian-led foreign militias to prop up Assad.
Russia’s intervention in the autumn transformed this into an “anti-Islamic State coali-tion”—even as Moscow was devoting most of its bombs to rebel positions, opposition-held territory, infrastructure, and civilian sites.
Still, it’s far too easy to reduce Saudi Arabia’s own “coalition” to the latest ploy in a Saudi-Ira-nian game. It is, of course, much more. Riyadh’s step owes as much—and possibly more—to its positioning versus the United States, Russia, and other Arab powers.
Saudi Arabia is frustrated by Washington’s hesitancy over Syria and wary of the political aftermath of the July 14 nuclear deal between Iran and the 5+1 powers, including the United States. From its point of view, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are moving ever closer to Russia in pursuit of a “settlement” in Syria—one which will be pursued as Mos-cow drops even more bombs on the opposition and rebels and which could accept Assad’s rule for a lengthy period.
Riyadh has tried to counter the moves with a conference to forge a Syrian opposition rebel bloc, gaining leverage in any negotiations with the Assad regime, and now it’s added this rather strange declaration. It may be empty of immediate mil-itary significance, but the polit-ical message is loaded: This is a coalition to offset Iran’s own alliances—and this coalition, in contrast to others in the Mid-dle East and against the Islamic State, is not “U.S.-led.”
Prince Mohammed drove home the point on Dec. 17, after President Putin said that Rus-sia’s plan for Syria was “in line with that of the United States”: Support for the Syrian rebels would be “unstinting” whether or not Moscow or Washington got their desired outcome from an international conference, the prince said.
For almost 50 years, Saudi Arabia has been a pillar of U.S. policy in the Middle East. But just as the uprisings of recent years have swept away regimes that ruled for decades, so they—and the reactions to them—are unsettling alliances.
A summary from one analyst in October 2013 takes on added force this week: “The Saudis are saying to the Americans: ‘You don’t want to work with us on Syria, fine. Let’s see who can flex their muscles in the region. Let’s see who can wield power. Let’s see what you’re made of.’”
Scott Lucas is a professor of inter-national politics at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. This article was previously published on TheConversation.com.
The Saudi-led counterterrorism coalition was hardly the unveiling of a grand military initiative. Instead, it was a political message.
Saudi Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman (L) and Crown Prince and Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef at the 136th Gulf Coop-eration Council (GCC) summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Dec. 9.
FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Folding Car Built to Be Ultimate Urban Vehicle
CARS
By Cindy DrukierEpoch Times Staff
ime to rethink city driving again—or more
specifically, city parking.Imagine having an ultra-compact, 2-seater
electric car that can self-park, slide into any spot
sideways or even diagonally, and if the parking
space still isn’t big enough, the car body hoists up
and folds forward, shrinking from roughly 7.5 feet
long to just 5.2 feet.
To compare, a Smart car is 8.8 feet long and even
a Vespa scooter is over 5.8 feet.
A team of engineers at the University of Bremen’s
DFKI Robotics Innovation Center in Germany
built the EO—”I go” in Latin—car to be the
ultimate urban solution for congested cities with
high competition for parking—cities just like New
York.The car is remarkably nimble. Each wheel has its
own motor allowing it to rotate 90 degrees.
See Foldable on A12
By Matthew RobertsonEpoch Times Staff
he United States has
followed up on its
c om m it ment to
challenge Chinese territorial
claims in the South China Sea,
recently flying a surveillance
plane over newly constructed
islands there and receiving
warnings by the Chinese navy
to evacuate the area.The flights, and the Chinese
response, were first reported
on May 20 by CNN, which
was given exclusive access to
a P8-A Poseidon surveillance
craft. The dates of the flights
were not provided.“You are approaching our
military alert zone,” said one
of the Chinese voices, captured
by the U.S. Navy and broadcast
by CNN. “Leave immediately!”
Another is more to the point:
“You go!”The flights were made over
the islands that the Chinese
regime has over the past
year worked assiduously to
construct, in an area it claims
as its territory.See Plane on A8
EO smart connecting car 2 with open scissor doors.
DIP
L.-IN
FORM
. TIM
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IRN
SCH
EIN
, DFK
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A Chinese vessel pumps sand expanding the Johnson Reef by the
Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
CHINA
PHILIPPINE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS/AP PHOTO
US Surveillance Plane Tests
Chinese Territorial Claims
in Sea
What it’s not built for is speed or distance. It tops out at 40 mph and its range on a single battery charge is only 30 to 44 miles.
No executives were charged, though that part of the investigation continues.
By Ken Sweet & Eric TuckerWASHINGTON—Four of the
world’s biggest banks agreed
Wednesday to pay more than
$5 billion in penalties and plead
guilty to rigging the currency
markets—a rare instance in
which federal prosecutors have
wrung an admission of criminal
wrongdoing from a major
financial institution.Traders at JPMorgan Chase,
Citigroup, Barclays, and the
Royal Bank of Scotland were
accused of conspiring among themselves to manipulate rates on the foreign exchange market, where hundreds of billions of dollars and euros change hands back and forth.The penalties are
a victory for the government
and reflect a broader effort
by the Justice Department,
long criticized as reluctant to
prosecute big banks, to tackle
financial misconduct.In the past 12 months,
prosecutors have brought
criminal cases against banks
accused of tax evasion and
sanctions violations, and have
sued several others for their roles
in the 2008 financial meltdown.
Still, the punishment may have
limited practical consequences,
and it’s far from clear that it will
deter misconduct by others.See Guilty Plea on A12
DOJ Fines Banks $5 Billion Over Currency Rigging
ISIS SEIZES ANCIENT TOWN OF PALMYRA IN SYRIA
BANKS
ISIS THREAT
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EIRUT—ISIS extremists captured the ancient
Syrian town of Palmyra after government defense
lines there collapsed Wednesday, a stunning
triumph for the group only days after it captured the
strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq.See Palmyra on A7
JOSEPH EID/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
By Zeina Karam & Sameer N. Yacoub
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Kokedama for SummerThe Japanese moss balls are an easy alternative to bonsai.
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China Holds Naval Exercises in Mediterranean Trade ChokepointThe Chinese regime has a larger push to build a global
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Tens of Thousands Remember
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Rick Perry Announces
2016 Bid, a Re-do From 2012
2016 CAMPAIGNBy Will Weissert & Steve Peoples
DDISON, Texas—Former Texas Gov.
Rick Perry opened his second bid for
the Republican presidential nomi-
nation Thursday, pledging to “end an era of
failed leadership” and hoping this campaign
will go better than his last one.
Perry announced his candidacy in a humid
airport hangar in the company of fellow vet-
erans and a hulking C-130 cargo plane, like
the one he flew for the Air Force. He is one
of the few veterans in a bustling Republican
field short on military experience.
With Perry in the contest and confirma-
tion earlier Thursday that former Florida
Jeb Bush will run, 11 major candidates now
are vying for the GOP and still more are
expected to join.See Re-do on A3
he latest scandal and the
arrests of seven top FIFA
officials last week didn’t
exactly come as a surprise for
those who have been following
FIFA and its corrupt
activities for some time.
Fourteen in total were
indicted by U.S. prose-
cutors on charges of
bribery, racketeering,
and money laundering.
Economics, however,
could have already pre-
dicted that the governmental
structure of FIFA was highly
prone to corruption.
Alberto Ades and Rafael Di
Tella looked at the subject from
the vantage point of
firms, governments,
and the public in a
paper published in
1997—and the the-
ory fits bolt-on for
FIFA as well.See FIFA on A12
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry at the 2015 Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Okla-
homa City on May 21.
Activists protest the FIFA World Cup in front of the Mané Garrincha sta-
dium in Brasilia, Brazil, on May 30, 2014.
ECONOMIC SENSE
EDILSON RODRIGUES/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
Economic Theory Suggests
FIFA Had to Be Corrupt Long
Before Scandals Became Public
AP PHOTO/KIN CHEUNG
Tens of thousands of people attend a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong on Thursday, June 4, to mark the suppression of the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
By Kelvin ChanH ONG KONG—Tens of
thousands of Hong-
kongers joined a can-
dlelight vigil Thursday
to mark the suppression
of the 1989 student-led Tiananmen
Square protests, an annual commemo-
ration with new meaning for the city’s
young after a year fighting Beijing.
For the first time in the vigil’s quar-
ter-century history, some student
groups didn’t take part and instead
held their own memorials, a sign of
an emerging rift between young and
old over Hong Kong identity that took
root during last year’s pro-democracy
protests, known as Occupy Central.
See Vigil on A6
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Seeking to Bring Former Dictator
to JusticePeople suing Jiang Zemin for
the persecution of Falun Gong
were arrested and detained.
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The bodies of dead civilians lie among
mangled bicycles near Beijing’s
Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Military tanks on an overpass
in Beijing two days after the
Tiananmen Square massacre on
June 6, 1989.
AP PHOTO/FILE
AP PHOTO/VINCENT YU
Valentin Schmid
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FORD O’CONNELL, REPUBLICAN
STRATEGIST
US AIRPORTSNY AIRPORT DELAYS WILL
GET WORSE
Despite planned improvements, NY airports will get
more congested over next 15 years, states report
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a plate.The cultures mingled
throughout history.
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USA
Your Pain Reliever
May Also Be Diminishing
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blunts positive emotions.
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and FoundPhotographer hunts down
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in CambodiaAustralia endorses Cambodia,
ignoring the country’s
embattled history.
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FertilizerAbout half of the US’s treated
wastewater is recycled as
fertilizer for land.
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Big Spending Dents
Facebook Q1 Results
By Shannon Liao
Epoch Times Staffacebook’s big spending on future projects
outpaced its revenue for the first quarter,
despite gains in mobile use and user engage-
ment. In its Q1 earnings announcement Wednes-
day, the company reported a 20 percent decline
in profit. Total costs and expenditures increased 83 per-
cent compared to the previous year, while reve-
nue only grew 46 percent. Many of the expenses
are in research and development spending, which
more than doubled to over $1 billion.
Facebook has acquired numerous apps and even
bought the virtual reality gaming startup Oculus
VR last year for $2 billion.
Still, according to the social media giant’s
announcement, Facebook has more than 1.4 bil-
lion active users each month and 936 million
users daily.See Earnings on A13
By Matthew Robertson
Epoch Times Staffn unflinching documentary
about mass murder for
profit in modern China
has been granted one of the most
prestigious awards in television
and broadcast, the Peabody
Award.“Human Harvest,” directed by
Leon Lee, was produced in 2014
and has been broadcast around
the world and during film festi-
vals since then. It was previously
awarded the 2015 Michael Sulli-
van Frontline Award for Journal-
ism in a Documentary.
The film focuses on the har-
vesting of organs of practitioners
of Falun Gong, a Chinese spirit-
ual discipline, by Chinese mili-
tary and civilian hospitals. Falun
Gong, which consists of medita-
tive exercises and moral teachings,
has been persecuted in its home-
land of China since 1999.
The anti-Falun Gong campaign
has featured arbitrary detention,
forced ideological re-education,
widespread torture in custody,
and thousands of deaths due to
that torture. See Peabody on A8
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in San Francisco on March 25.
JOSH EDELSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
A scene from “Human Harvest,” a documentary on the harvesting of
organs from living people in China.
ORGAN HARVESTING
SCREENSHOT VIA FLYING CLOUD
Organ Harvest Documentary
Wins Prestigious Peabody Prize
Facebook has
acquired numerous
apps and even bought
the virtual reality
gaming startup
Oculus VR last year for $2 billion.
‘Human Harvest’ is a lengthy
and detailed exploration of
the allegations, evidence, and
inference of the mass murder
of Falun Gong prisoners of
conscience in China, beginning
in around 2000.
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The Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
By Cindy Drukier
Epoch Times Staffll three international airports
in the New York area are
destined to remain over
capacity for at least the next
15 years, meaning more annoy-
ing and costly delays for airlines
and travelers.
A report published by the Gov-
ernment Accountability Office
(GAO) on the state of airport fund-
ing and infrastructure on Thurs-
day found that six airports in the
United States will be “capacity
constrained” through to 2020.
The six international airports
include all three New York area
facilities—John F. Kennedy,
LaGuardia, Newark Liberty—plus
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Phila-
delphia, and San Francisco.
See Delays on A9
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