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How the Saudis Are Coming Clean on Funding Terrorism

(Politico) Zalmay Khalilzad - On my most recent trip to Saudi Arabia, I was greeted with a startling confession. In the past, when we raised the issue of funding Islamic extremists with the Saudis, all we got were denials. This time, one top Saudi official admitted to me, "We misled you." He explained that Saudi support for Islamic extremism started in the early 1960s as a counter to Nasserism and then became a way of resisting the Soviet Union, often in cooperation with the U.S., in places like Afghanistan in the 1980s. But over time, the Saudis say, their support for extremism turned on them, metastasizing into a serious threat to the Kingdom and to the West. They had created a monster that had begun to devour them. In their current thinking, the Saudis see Islamic extremism as one of the two major threats facing the kingdom - the other threat being Iran. One byproduct of the Saudi focus on ISIS and Iran seems to be a more enlightened view by Riyadh toward Israel. The Saudis stated that they do not regard Israel as an enemy and that the kingdom is making no military contingency plans directed against Israel. They did emphasize the need for progress on the Palestinian issue, but the tone on this subject was noticeably less emotional than in the past. The writer is a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN.
2016-09-19 00:00:00
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